MOTHER'S DAY MADNESS

Mother's Day can be many things, but certainly it should include some relaxing moments right? I think I may have missed that part. I didn't get breakfast in bed (WHY NOT BOYS?), but I did manage to sleep in a little longer than I expected to. Of course that made my back hurt so not such a good choice. Things were moving right on schedule and at 10:15 Spencer went out to start the van so we could go to church.

Side story about the van. I have this not-so-user-friendly battery in my van that has a mind of its own. My brother bought me a battery booster  for Christmas this past December which is the best thing ever. So when my battery is asleep, I hook up the booster and I'm good to go. It takes about 30 seconds. I also have an electric battery charger that I have used a couple times when the booster itself didn't have a full charge (gotta  have a back-up plan). For that I have to plug it in to the electrical outlet and wait 20-30 minutes.

Well at 10:15 Spencer comes back  in with the news that the booster is doing nothing. We wait  five minutes and try again. Nothing. Instigated Plan B.....used the charger but 20 minutes later......nothing...... no church today.

Grabbed the cell phone. Hello Bob (helpful brother), "Didn't we just test that battery yesterday?" "Didn't we conclude the battery was weak but still had some life?"

Cut to two hours later.....bought myself a new battery for a Mother's Day present. Luckily, I received a credit on my bad  battery so I only had to spend about $60. OK, so now I have a reliable battery....money well spent I guess.

I decide to buy lunch for my brother (who drove all  the way across town, drove me to Auto Zone, and put in the new battery), as well as my youngest who went along. Jimmy John's...... good subs..... although not quite the Mother's Day brunch that would have been lovely (MAKE A MENTAL NOTE BOYS). I said goodbye to another $20.

Now it's mid-afternoon and the weather is beautiful so I decide we should spend some quality mother/sons time outdoors. Let's pull some weeds, mow the lawn, place landscaping bricks around a tree, and head to Lowe's for some garage organization supplies. Well what the heck, I spent $70 on some very exciting mom stuff. Who wouldn't want a 4' by 4' sheet of pegboard, sawhorses, stripper for the wood floors, and  miscellaneous garage stuff to show for 16 years of motherhood. Well now with all these goodies, we have to pull everything out of the garage and rearrange everything. Oh look, let's use that tallest ladder to climb up to  the clogged dryer vent. It was so nice of those birds to place all that straw in there. OK,  clothes are drying nicely again so let's get back to the garage. Darned if I didn't realize that I still had not bought a drill. Only the pegboard could be nailed up so some things will have to wait.......thank  God......two hours of rearranging and sweeping was enough.

Hey, I needed  to spend more money so it was fortunate that the cupboards and frig were bare and I was off to the grocery store for $30 worth of essentials. Once home for good, I told the boys to get ready for bed while I tried out my new scraper for the 4 layers of porch paint I'm removing. Money well spent there.....works quite well and I am so looking forward to getting back to that  project. Seriously I am so I can enjoy my porch.

Finally it was time to sit back and relax. I told  the boys to queue up the movie I bought for some family time while I quickly straightened up the kitchen. Well, that turned  into more than a half hour and I believe it was almost 10:00 when we sat down in front of the TV with our cheese perogies and  Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (pretending it was something a bit more gourmet).  I had splurged the day before with $5 for a 23-year-old Dan Ackroyd/John Candy comedy (The Great Outdoors)..... I didn't think the boys would spend the evening watching period movies or French movies with Gerard Depardieu.

I would  have to say in all honesty that although this Mother's Day was not too relaxing, was devoid of material gifts, and was a checkbook buster, I enjoyed it anyway. I enjoyed it very much actually. I spent time with my boys and they didn't complain, they never mentioned the X-Box, the Wii, or Airsoft guns, they helped with some projects that really needed attention, and they watched a goofy movie past their bedtime just because I wanted some family relaxing time. I also have the things  I need to proceed  with other "new house" projects, and  I don't need to mess with that darn battery anymore. A good Mother's Day indeed.