Day 241: Your Mother’s Day Celebration

Due to my Mother’s Day faux pas, we decided to celebrate Mother’s Day on May 25^th.

The kids woke up extra early, for some unknown reason, so I let you sleep in while I watched them and made your breakfast. What was on the menu? Eggs in a bread bowl. I took a round loaf of bread from Trader Joe’s, hollowed it out, and filled it with eggs, feta, prosciutto, and basil. I then baked it for 50 minutes. Here she is:

Along with your bread bowl, I served you watermelon, cherries, orange juice, and tea:

You absolutely loved your breakfast. Afterwards, I told you to take a shower and get dressed and to take as much time as you needed. When you were done, I handed you your gift certificate for a professional massage and sent you out the door.

When you were gone, the girls and I made you your pictures using water colors, paint, dry noodles, and cheerios. They  had so much fun doing something special for you while being creative at the same time.

You came back from your massage very relaxed, yet a little giddy. For the rest of the day, you didn’t stop talking about it.

For lunch, I made us a picnic. I planned on taking us to the duck-and-turtle park, but Saturday was really windy. So we had our picnic in our front yard.

After lunch, I let you take a nap while I watched the kids. Eventually, we all fell asleep.

I had another thing planned for the evening, but I learned that we had a graduation party to attend. So, I put that on hold.

I hope you enjoyed your “Mother’s Day.” It might seem a little like my penance for taking you to Chuck E. Cheese’s, but really, I did it from a sincere heart because I love you. You’re a great mom and you deserved this day.

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Day 227: Your Act of Love

On the way home from your earth-shattering Mother’s Day celebration (where’s a sarcasm font when you need one?), I started feeling sick. By the time we got home, I felt so bad that I had a hard time making it to my bed on my own. For the rest of the night, I lay in bed with a high fever.

That was a really fine way to end your Mother’s Day. But think of it this way–I gave you a great opportunity to show off those outstanding mothering skills of yours. And show them off you did! You waited on me at every moment, yet simultaneously kept our kids from killing each other.

Thank you so much for doing such a great job. In fact, thanking you for the job you did was my act of love for Saturday. While sick in bed, I wrote you this note:

Thank you for taking care of me even on Mother’s Day. You’re a great mom and a spectacular wife!

That note was about all I could handle doing for your act of love. I can’t believe how sick I felt that night. (Maybe the processed chicken from Chuck E. Cheese’s didn’t sit well with me!)

My Mother’s Day Mistake

One of my friends gave his wife a really nice Mother’s Day. He made her three meals–great meals–and washed every dish he dirtied. For lunch, he took her on a picnic to the best-rated park in Santa Barbara, where they strolled through manicured gardens and spied turtles and baby ducks. Kudos to him.

I took you to Chuck E. Cheese’s. Hurray for me, the king of romance. First, we dined on lukewarm pizza topped with processed chicken, after which I served you by throwing away every Chuck-E-Cheese-printed paper plate we used. Next we strolled along gum-ridden carpets and spied sugar-high adolescents and screaming toddlers.

How did I end up taking you to Chuck E. Cheese’s for Mother’s Day? (Well, technically, it was the day before Mother’s Day, but it was our Mother’s Day celebration. We couldn’t do Mother’s Day on Mother’s Day because I had to work on Sunday.) It all started the week before when we were driving to your mom’s house and you asked me what I was going to do for you for Mother’s Day. I said that some of it was a secret and some of it was up in the air. Just then, our daughter saw Chuck E. Cheese’s and started begging us to take her there (she had never been). “That would be fun!” I said. “Yeah, it would!” you said. From there, my memory of our conversation is fuzzy. But somehow, we decided that we would go there for Mother’s Day. Did I strongly suggest the notion and you reluctantly agreed or did I merely suggest it and you happily agreed? Or did you suggest it? Who knows. But, I distinctly remember asking, “Are you sure that sounds like a good Mother’s Day to you?” And you said yes.

Fast forward to M-Day. You woke up, not to the rising scent of french toast or bacon and eggs, but to the primal screams of our children for Chuck E. Cheese’s. “Chuck E. Cheese’s–where a kid can be a kid!” they cried. Over and over.

When we got in the car, I noticed you were bothered. “What’s wrong?” “Are we really doing Chuck E. Cheese’s for Mother’s Day?” you asked. “Isn’t that what you wanted?” “I said it would be fun, but that’s because I thought you had other stuff planned for me. You do have other stuff planned, right?” Awkward silence. “This was all you planned for Mother’s Day?!”

After a little discussion, we agreed that Chuck E. Cheese’s would be for the kids and that we’d do Mother’s Day another time. In fact, I’ve set a date for it: May 26th. I know of a nice park we might try.

So goes my version of the story.

PS: The friend I mentioned above was inspired by this blog to do something romantic for his wife once a week. She doesn’t know about this commitment of his.

PPS: Another friend of mine was similarly inspired.

Day 45: Breakfast in Bed

Since I started 365 acts of love, it’s been difficult to stay mad at you. On Friday night, I got mildly upset at you (and you at me) for something stupid. Moments later, I began thinking about Saturday’s act of love. I couldn’t stay mad at you while planning out an expression of my love for you (Even still, I decided not to talk about our dispute while we were both tired.)

While you slept on Saturday morning, the girls and I brought pancakes, bacon, a sliced pear, and coffee to your bedside. It wasn’t even Mother’s Day! We gently woke you. You sat up, saw us with breakfast for you, and smiled the sweetest of smiles. As you ate, we talked about why we were upset at each other. The conversation went much better than the night before: our bodies were rested and the act of love put both of our hearts in better places.