DIY Mother's Day

My Mother’s Day

Today I spent most of the day with my youngest son (14 years). The two older ones (20 and 18) were at college and at work, respectively. Hubby is away. I pried #3 off the couch and, under duress, made him go the Goodwill with me. To his surprise, he made out pretty well, finding two perfect “Blues Brothers” pairs of sunglasses and a left-handed junior golf club, perfect for his younger friend who would like to golf with him. He has been begging me lately to let him drive the car, so today (since he washed it for me yesterday) I finally relented. We went to the fairgrounds and I coached him a bit and let him drive around the parking lot. Just like his brothers, he announced that he could see how dangerous it was to drive. Score. Yes, a car is a weapon. Then since I had some tokens for free ice cream, we went for some Italian ices at our local ice cream shop.

My husband spent the weekend at a campout with twenty women employees of a dental office and three guys. They got to take a whale-watching boat to an island and he hefted gear a quarter-mile in his handcart to the campground. He was part of the entertainment, lugging along his accordion and guitar. He was talking and planning for this all week! I am a musician too, so I am not too tweaked about this (I got to fiddle for a contradance last night and had a blast), but I like how he left off the information about how many women would be there, till two days ago! ☹

Son #2 got home around 3:30 and we three decided to go to our favorite shopping town an hour away. Though we went to get #3 some pants, it seems #2 got everything he wanted this trip, so #3 was ticked off. We had dinner at a taco place. There was a young family there with their three little girls, one of them a toddler; watching her wobble around brought tears to my eyes. My hulking teenage sons enjoyed her, too. The dad said to them, “someday you’ll be in my shoes!” It was too perfect!

While the sons were shopping in the music store, I sat in the car and called some family. I talked to my Mom and sister in Michigan, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law in Ohio, and son #1. That’s the best we can do on Mother’s Day, except sending cards and maybe flowers. The son is trying to figure out different scenarios for working and living this summer and next year. Dorm life will be a thing of the past next year, but what will replace it? He hates this phase of living in limbo.

We got home and hubby was there. I somehow misplaced my house keys (I’m hoping they’re somewhere in the car), so we woke him up by pounding on the door. Nevertheless he was happy to see us.

Would you believe these teenagers gave me gifts of clay items they made in art class? I thought I had seen the last of these kinds of gifts, but I was wrong. (They’re still my little boys—sniff sniff!)

Guess this was an all-around do-it-yourself Mother’s Day. Pretty good, I think!