Mother’s Day can be joyful but also full of hurt and despair. I am surrounded by women who are tremendous mothers and examples to me. I also know several who have yet to become mothers–some struggle with infertility, others chose not to have kids, a handful have lost their mothers or have a bad relationship with them and many more want to settle down but haven’t found Mr. Right.
My own mom never liked Mother’s Day so I’ve always treaded softly around the subject. This morning, I posted a picture on Facebook of Bode reading a book he wrote to me with this message:
Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful women who mother, even if they are not moms.
I had been up most of the night with an unrelenting cough, causing Jamie and Fat Kitty to leave me alone in my misery so they could get some sleep (and I didn’t blame them a bit). Early the next morning, I saw three faces peek through my bedroom door and when they realized I was awake, burst in with my favorite breakfast: fresh mangoes, raspberries and strawberries with yogurt.
They showered me with homemade gifts–Bode a beautiful picture, Hadley a fun notebook she had made at church and Jamie spoiled me with a new juicer (send me your favorite recipes), two four-hour deep house cleaning Groupon cards (HALLELUJAH!) and he reluctantly wore his Canadian maple leaf tie in my honor.
Our ward’s tradition at church on Mother’s Day is to have pie at the end of our meetings. One year, some silly man got it into his head the women didn’t like the pie so changed it up. I won’t go into the ugly details of the Mom Revolution (think: World Ward III) but I was very happy to see pie back on the agenda the following year.
And this welcome addition: Jamie prepared a smoked beef tenderloin, thyme-rosemary fingerling potatoes, garlic mushrooms and poppy-seed coleslaw.
My vote is he’s on dinner duty from now on.
Our little family likes to keep Mother’s Day low-key. A couple of years ago, we went for a walk around gorgeous Evergreen Lake where we love to skate in the wintertime. It was so memorable I declared it our new tradition because there are just so many things to smile about like this: 
Not to mention this.
And this.
But don’t tell that to Hadley. She thinks I have a camera constantly in her face and she would be correct. Sorry, dearie but such is fate of the iPhone generation of parents who always have their camera phone with them. Doesn’t she just looked thrilled to be in this picture?
May2013
Jamie wasn’t much better. The first shot I took, he was mimicking Hadley by scowling at the camera.
I obviously made him retake the picture.
For this one, I told Hadley we weren’t moving until she would smile. Stubborn Miss took a while (so long poor Bode declared he was going to start crying because he had been smiling forever).
It’s my Mother’s Day and I’ll MAKE YOU SMILE IF I WANT TO.
But don’t be mislead. She was smiling 99.9 percent of the time as we took that beautiful stroll around the lake. I even caught this candid shot of her (gasp) smiling.
Just don’t let her know I’m onto her.
Happy Mother’s Day!!!
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 