Mother's Day 2013

Yesterday morning, I woke up to the cutest bunch of scraggly-haired PJ-clad kids jumping on my bed to cuddle with me and give me cards (after they'd let me sleep in - hallelujah!). Trailing close behind them was my wonderful husband with tray full of lovel flowers and a nice breakfast. Then as I ate, Ashton played a song he's learned recently on the guitar for me while the rest of the kids sang the words. It was a bit off-key. The guitar part was rough in a few spots. But it was pretty much the most beautiful performance I've ever seen.

They sang/played "Time of your Life" by Green Day. This was "our song" when Jared and I were dating and the lyrics have proven to be true of our family's story as it's unfolded. 

We've had so many forks in the road, so many times we've been grabbed and directed towards things we didn't anticipate. We've learned so many lessons. So little about our family's life has really turned out in a predictable way (I never would have guessed we'd end up with 5 kids in 5 years, that we'd live in St George, that Jared would run a trucking company or a tire software company or be Bishop of our ward, that we'd live in St George and or Ogden, that I'd be running this website that now reaches over a million moms....). In many ways, things have turned out unpredictably hard and scary and grueling. But wow, so many things have sure turned out right in so many beautiful ways, I've got thousands of lovely still-frames and photographs in my mind, pretty much all the hard stuff has ended up adding up to great stuff, and when I stop stressing out long enough to think about it, I am having the time of my life.

Here are the lyrics to "Time of your Life"

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life. 

After breakfast, we went on a little hike/walk that I love up in the mountains and enjoyed a perfect blue sky and lots of beautiful wildflowers. The kids were great about staying by me and not getting way behind or scaling crazy-scary cliffs as is their norm (I pulled the Mother's Day card and asked them to PLEASE hike along nicely by me and not complain...). 

 

Church was good - beautiful talks, beautiful singing by all the primary kids. 

Then Oliver and Silas made me my favorite cookies - all by themselves. They've become the best bakers in the family.

The kids and Jared made me a delicious dinner and a smorgesborg of delicious desserts (including the cookies). 


Then Isaac played with my hair (my favorite), Eliza gave me a back massage (it only lasted about 2 minutes but it was great while it lasted!), and we all sat around just talking and reminiscing and enjoying each other until it was way too late - but it was just so nice that none of us could quite get ourselves to bed any earlier.

I am blessed beyond my dreams with these kids of mine. They sure give me a run for my money and I don't know what in the heck I'm doing as a mom sometimes. But I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. I'll take that "dead skin on trial" (not sure what that means but it works for "hard times" in my mind - so much skin in the game, so many trials as a mom) if it means I get those "tattoos of memories" that I love so much.

Here's a shot of these wild and precious children of mine singing a song on Skype for their grandmas: