Mother's Day Redemption

Isn't it lovely when hope is fulfilled? :-) I know I've mentioned that in the past, Mother's Day has been a bit lackluster for me (to put it mildly). And this year, Mother's Day was GRAND. It really was. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was quietly enjoyable and wonderful. And isn't that what life is all about?

The four of us went to Mass together, which is always a treat. The kids made me handcrafted gifts at school. I had a girls brunch with my mom and my grandmother, during which time Anne and I wore matching dresses. :0 I tried to get a good photo of us wearing them, but this is what happened:

Looks as if we're being attacked by marauding Emperor penguins

 

 

This is better, though you can't see the dresses so well. I think we need a selfie stick. ;-)

Mike took Henry to his soccer game during brunch, so that I didn't have to worry about that. Later, he made dinner and we had my in-laws over to eat with us. I sat around and drank wine, just as I had dreamed of. ;-)

It was smashing, truly. I also did a lot of knitting, I'll post about that coming up here. I ordered yarn for a summer knit-along, OOHHHHHHH! I'm super excited. In fact, I may officially make tomorrow's post a crafty Wednesday, so tune in if you enjoy such frivolity and want to join me!

In other news, my new piece for Catholic Mom went live:



If this is a topic near and dear to your heart, I would love for you to chime in over there. I'm pleased to report in that things are going better for me in that regard. I'm very much enjoying the Pentecost novena, it's feeling quite fruitful in quiet ways. Are you praying that as well? How is that going for you?

And how was YOUR Mother's Day, dear reader? I would love to hear all about it!

Tea Time with Tiffany #47 - Are *you* kindergarten ready?! And Come Holy Spirit!

Well hello all! It's a gorgeous day for our first May 2016 episode of:

Today I talk about the Pentecost novena, and a quick compilation of family updates. Who is playing soccer on Mother's Day? Who is in the star role in a play next weekend? And who among us is "kindergarten ready"? Listen on, dear listener!



**To subscribe to the audio version of Tea Time with Tiffany, just search for it in iTunes or use this link to subscribe via Feedburner in your podcatcher of choice. Intro music is "Tea Ceremony" from PlayonLoop.com

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Pentecost Novena
• Henry's 1st Holy Communion, 2 years ago. *sob!*
• Mother's Day Disasters of old.

What's going on with you, dear listener? Do write in and let me know!

Spring concerts and a Mother's Day rosary giveaway!

That's me and my Henry, at our mother/son bowling gig last weekend. Terrible photo quality, I know, but we only got a print, so I didn't have a lot to work with. ;-) And Henry's body language is just priceless, is it not?

"I'm only posing for this picture because they are making me."

"They" being the Organizer Lady taking all of the photos, and Me squeezing him to my side. He genuinely seemed to enjoy bowling with me, he's just so shy about being photographed or generally doing anything in front of other people. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...although I *have* gotten better about this as an adult, I suppose, given that I belly dance in public on a regular basis. But as a kid? Just like Henry. He reminds me a lot of myself as a child.

That certainly applied yesterday evening too as we headed out to the spring concert at his school. It was held in the church, I love that, as the school doesn't have an auditorium, and Henry looked all nervous and cute in his dress clothes. When his class passed by on their way to perform, he squirted past as fast as his legs could carry him, God forbid he should make eye contact. :0 He's very precious.

And I have to say, his class sounded GREAT. They played their recorders, and I was seriously impressed with the new music teacher. He was very warm and friendly with the kids, but had an excellent command of their attention with his direction. And there was NO squeaking of the recorders. In past concerts, that has not been the case. ;-) They did a fantastic job.

When we left the church, a spring rain was falling, and it felt rather idyllic. In just over a year, we'll have two concerts to attend each year, since Anne will be in school, and she will perform in a separate concert from Henry given that they're grouped by age. So we'll attend both the Christmas and the spring concerts. Sweet!

Anne, by the way, acquired an admirer during the course of the concert. A 2-year old little boy in our pew really took a shine to her, and kept coming over and handing her hymnals with a very serious and devoted expression on his face. Adorable.

In other news, with Mother's Day approaching, a quick and applicable giveaway to bring to your attention! Allison, one of my very favorite rosary artisans, is hosting a giveaway at her blog of a custom Swarovski pocket rosary. Head over to enter for yourself or your mom!

Mother's Day gift ideas?

I need serious ideas here, people, so let's put our thinking caps on. ;-) Mother's Day is fast approaching, and each year I struggle with what to get my dear Mommy. She's one of those people that feels hard to buy for, although she isn't particularly fussy about items she receives as gifts, so I don't why I fret over this so much. But my superpower is to turn ordinary, everyday tasks into Anxiety Levels Worthy Of Classification As A Cardiovascular Activity, so there you have it.

I've seen two things that have caught my eye, but then I want your creative energy to chime in. :) One is this lovely embroidered rosette necklace from Call Her Happy:

She'll customize it to the number and gender of the children of the mom in question, which I think is perfect. My mom has three girls and loves purple, so voila! This is almost certainly going to get ordered.

If you're of the persuasion to make jewelry, I saw this Peas in a Pod Bracelet as an inspiration project on Fusion Beads:

I happen to have two sisters, but you could add or subtract beads accordingly depending upon the mother. I'm feeling a bit lazy about making jewelry these days, but I thought it was a nice idea for a Mother's Day gift.

So. I need your ideas. :) Lay 'em on me!

Who hates Mother's Day?

Inquiring minds want to know. :)

I give you the story of a Mother's Day journey, one that started out fairly innocuous, but somewhere along the line went terribly awry. Let us begin some 30 plus years ago, in a land not so far away...

When I was a little girl, Mother's Day was, you know, fine. I don't really remember it too much. I would get my mom something nice and that would be the end of it. That's the innocuous part.

Fast forward to my first Mother's Day as a mother. Henry was about 6 months old. At this point, I hadn't slept through the night uninterrupted since the moment he was born. Oh, and tack on an additional 9 months since we all know you sleep like crap when you're pregnant. So it's been well over a year with foul garbage sleep. Henry was NOT a great sleeper. And he was an early teether, so at 6 months we're talking multiple, multiple wake ups that, as a first time parent, I was completely unprepared for. In hind sight, I really think I had some postpartum depression in the year after I had Henry.

On that particular Mother's Day we had had an especially challenging night. Bone weary, I went to Mass and then hustled around to get ready to meet my parents for brunch. Somehow, in our delirium, Mike and I manage to get Henry buckled into his car seat and we're underway to the restaurant. Upon arrival, I make an upsetting realization: I was so out of it that I left my mom's gift at home.

What does any mature, self-respecting woman do at this juncture? She bursts into tears, of course. As in uncontrollable sobs, right in the middle of the restaurant.

Everybody was very worried about me. "What's wrong?!" they all want to know.

I've always remembered my answer. "I'm just so tired."

And I meant that in every possible sense. Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, I had nothing left to give.

The exhaustion had nothing to do with Mother's Day, but it seems that somehow it left bad karma for every future Mother's Day to come. Regularly, each Mother's Day, we're dealing with:

(1) extraction of a tantruming child from Mass;

(2) extraction of a tantruming child from a restaurant;

(3) travel to multiple locations to see both mothers and any grandmothers;

(4) Mike and I picking fights with each other because we're both so tired and aggravated.

To illustrate, we have Mother's Day 2013:

We all go to Mass as a family, something that doesn't happen as much as I'd like and that I treasure. The Gospel hasn't even been read before Anne causes trouble out in the aisle and has to be picked up. Her arched back response is an immediate clue that she needs to be extracted. Mike does the honors, and I don't see him for at least 20 minutes. They come back in right before communion and Anne does behave for the rest of Mass. A short, frantic time at home and then we have to leave for brunch with my family. This is right during Anne's nap time. She cries upon being buckled into her car seat and is surly at brunch. Toward the end, she flings herself on the floor and we exit the restaurant in disgrace. We (oops, Freudian) *she* sobs for half the ride home. Upon arrival at home she is immediately escorted to her crib where she screams again for a short time before passing out (and clearly, this is all due to her not getting a properly timed nap, which is *our* fault, but the Mother's Day plans always aggravate this problem). During the nap, we move furniture back into our main living spaces. Anne wakes up in such a foul mood that I have to *chase her around her crib* to pull her out, and I think it was around this time that I thought to myself,

"Good gracious, I hate Mother's Day."

Mike's parents come over just as I get Anne calmed down. We visit. They leave and we deal with a whiny Henry and an oversensitive Anne for the remainder of the night. We're all far too stuffed from our late brunch to make the nice dinner that we had planned. Neither child goes to bed soon enough to suit me. By the time they are finally both asleep, I'm too beat to even have a glass of wine.

Happy Mother's Day to me.

Which I hope doesn't come across as selfish. I mean, I don't really care if I have a nice Mother's Day because I think that Mother's Day is a made up Hallmark holiday that I wish we could all forget about. Except if we did that other people would think that we were horrible, horrible individuals with no souls.

All weekend long, I hear "Happy Mother's Day!! Do you have any nice plans?"

There are lots of people on this Mother's Day bandwagon, and I think everybody is so afraid that if they don't wish a woman a happy Mother's Day some permanent black mark will be entered onto their record. I find this very awkward, because I don't always know if I can say "and to you too!" back, because I often have no idea of whether a particular woman is a mother. And if she isn't, perhaps this is a painful topic for her, and I don't want to make her feel worse than she invariably already feels on this day.

Yes, my name is Tiffany, and I am an anti-Mother's Day-ite. Should there be a support group for us?

Mother's Day just feels so forced to me. I know that my family appreciates me, I don't need a special day for it. I truly hope that I make my mother and grandmother feel appreciated all year long, I know that I strive to.

Perhaps I'm just getting crotchedy in my old age. Use of the word "crotchedy" unfortunately bears this theory out, methinks. So, what say you? Does anybody else dislike Mother's Day?