I generally like things organized and planned.  I do love the element of surprise, but only when I’m giving, not receiving, the surprise.  Mother’s Day was no exception.  We were going to the Brewers game, which is a family favorite event.  We were meeting up to tailgate with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. The cousins would play and we’d grill sausages.  Lemon is my mother’s favorite, so I had planned to make lemon cupcakes with a raspberry cream cheese frosting.  I had been planning this flavor combination in my head and was excited to execute. Of course I had a few extra fun details planned to make it the perfect Mother’s Day tailgate.

Then the unexpected happened. My husband’s cousin passed away. He was young and in good health. No one saw it coming.  The funeral was scheduled for Sunday – Mother’s Day.  My husband kept apologizing for the way we were going to spend the day. I clearly didn’t care. This Mother’s Day wasn’t about me. Their was a Mother whose world had just been shattered. She’d soon be facing Father’s Day, without the father of her young kids.

Mother’s Day isn’t about the perfect tailgate or celebration. It’s not the perfect gift. It’s about being with the ones you love because you don’t know how long you will have them. Whether you are a mother or not is irrelevant. You are special to someone and someone is special to you. Reach out and tell them you love them. Better yet, spend some quality time with them if you can. You don’t know how long you’ll have the pleasure.

Despite the circumstances I ended up having a great Mother’s Day! We had to leave town for the funeral, so we spent Saturday night in a hotel. My husband took the kids for some morning errands around the hotel so I could sleep in.  I met up with them and some additional family at breakfast. We went swimming with the kids and some took a quick nap.  We then went to the funeral and paid our respects. We hugged a mother who was having the hardest day of her life and has a rough horizon ahead.

On our drive back we stopped at a little cheese shop for lunch – which is an entire post in it’s self. I was with my family. I had my family. I had it all!

Due to a series of scheduling conflicts, we had to ask both grandma’s to help with the kids on Monday. Their constant willingness and true joy in helping with the kids is just one of the reasons they are both godsends!  The situation also gave us a chance to have a Mother’s Day redo. The first grandma is coming to get the kids off to school and the other was going to get them off the bus.  We needed to stop at the store on our way back into town Sunday night to pick up a few essentials for the week.  I grabbed some apple fritters and put together a little Mother’s Day breakfast for the kids to share with Grandma.  I also grabbed a bag of frozen meatballs and some sauce and made some slow cooker spaghetti to share with the other Grandma who was getting the kids off the bus.  No, it might not taste the same as the homemade meatballs I lovingly spend an afternoon making, but it is time together.

Sometimes all it takes is a moment shared over day old apple fritters or some frozen meatballs to make a memory.

Happy Mother’s Day! Happy every day!