obligatory mother's day post

For weeks before Mother's Day Sarah was offering me all kinds of good stuff to celebrate my special day. Every time we went to the store she would tell me she would get me whatever I wanted at the store. She was quite secretive about some things that she brought home from school and stowed away in a special bag for me. She forbid me to look in it and then promptly left it on the counter. I did not look--even when I had to move it from the counter to a more appropriate spot. She offered to take me to Koa Koa, a frozen yogurt store nearby that she loves, and let me get whatever I wanted with as many toppings as I wanted. She even said that dad would drive so I wouldn't have to. She told me that she would make me breakfast. I was certainly tempted. I decided that I would just buy myself a skirt and call it good for the blessed holiday. Then Mother's Day arrived. Zach woke me up, and I made breakfast. Later Sarah told me that if I hadn't awakened so early she could have just made it for me. Before we left for church, she brought the bag of goods and demanded that I open it before our departure. I opened it to find the following:

• 3 cards
• 3 flower art projects
• 4 pencils
• a fingernail file
• postcard of a boy milking a cow from our recent road trip
• a bookmark
• zach's most recent art project from his art class
• a framed picture of her
• a Littlest Pet Shop toy from a Happy Meal
• two make-it-yourself necklaces
• a ring she made with a "rare blue diamond" in a special Sarah's "julery" store box
• candy cane shaped pen
• SpongeBob blower party favor
• mini Jack and the Beanstalk book
• post-it note pad
• pencil sharpener
• two bubble wands that I actually purchased for the kids but Sarah found and commandeered
• some assorted Valentine's Day scrapbook paper
• giant princess pin
• gingerbread man eraser
• handwritten list of all of Sarah's favorite princesses
• beautifully colored page from a coloring book
• $2.42 in change
• a lovely new jewelry box made by Sarah in her art class

For Mother's Day, Sarah gave me a bag of her greatest treasures that she has been collecting with me in mind over the past few weeks. I now find myself trying to find a way to work some of these treasures back into her room or even to dispose of some of them. I realize this sounds awful, but the treasures are not what really matters to me. What matters is that she cares enough to share her greatest treasures with me. And the best gift of all is that even when I'm grumpy with her or yell at her or don't buy her what she wants at the store or argue with her over what to wear or to practice her piano she still wants to snuggle up next to me on the couch to watch a movie. She still wants me to be next to her when she falls asleep at night. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she comes to me. When her feelings are hurt or she gets injured, it's my arms that she searches for and my shoulder that she cries on. Even when I fall short of being the best mother that I can be, she still wants to be around me. Those things make for the happiest Mother's Day ever--even though I had to make my own breakfast!