Mother's Day...

{hopefully I don't sound too harsh or ungrateful writing this, certainly not how it's meant} but it has always been a weird holiday for me!! It comes the same time every year, second Sunday of May, and has since 1908 when Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrase "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day" and then in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made it an official holiday! A little history inserted here {and reflects a little of my feeling of Mother's Day}...nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become and spent all of her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an abuse of the celebration. All the commercialization infuriated Anna and she made it known. She criticized the purchase of greeting cards, which she saw as a sign of laziness. She was arrested in 1948 for protesting and disturbing the peace and she finally said that she..."wished that she would have never started the day because it became so out of control...". So like Anna, when I first became a mom I was so excited but it became such an obvious chore for everyone ~ not that they don't try and I am truly grateful for all I have ever been given ~ but I soon came to dread it! And also... since it's been around that long, my family always seems so surprised that it's in May!! So my feelings on Mother's Day ~ don't need it. I hope I don't sound bitter but I don't like it. My family {and hubby} help me and love me all year long and I hate having one day where they feel forced to be "extra good" {which never happens no matter how hard they try}, where they can never figure out what to get mom and they {especially John} stress about it cause it's 8:59 Saturday night and everything is closed but Wal-Mart {which by the way is one of my favorite stores so I really don't mind, I'm a Walmart gal at heart} or Broulims, but then John always ends up apologizing and I don't want that!!! What I do love are the homemade cards from the kids and the notes that John leaves me, written on an envelope, on the table for me to find in the morning! Or that Hannah and Halle sneak into the kitchen and fix me an amazing omelet with flowers and cards all around...then stand right next to me, each of them looking over my shoulders, telling me that if I can't eat it all they will finish it for me...which, surprisingly enough, after three bites, I was stuffed!! So they finished it for me!! That's what I love about Mother's Day! That and I can look forward to John rubbing my feet for a good long time!! So again, like Anna, I like it to be personal, the little things...the hugs, the kisses, the "I love you mom", and John we he hugs me tight and tells me he loves me, and that he's so grateful for all I do!! I'm a mom, to me it means some of my needs and most of my wants will wait for now and possibly forever! And I am perfectly ok with that!! My babies will soon be gone and hopefully they'll remember me on Mother's Day when they are older, and if they live close by {I'm not letting any of them move out of a 5 mile radius of me}, a family dinner with all my grand babies runnin' around, but I never want it to be a "chore", or a "hassle"!! Cause I know even when I'm 80, I can always look forward to my foot rub from John! Now my birthday....that's a whole different story!! Nobody in this family had better forget this mama's BIRTHDAY!!! Complete with presents, cards, candy, cakes, and even more presents!!! ;) And just to give them a little heads up, it's on the same day every year...never changes...never will!! Get prepared family!!!