Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year has been a bit different to previous years, for a few different reasons. James was able to spend Mothers' Day in Hervey Bay with his Mum which was very special, but did mean that he wasn't here with us. This meant that the kids were left to themselves to make today special for me. On the whole they did pretty well, but it has been a day of ups and downs, of laughs and tears.

The morning started at 6:15 when the kids started calling out to each other about how much longer there was until their suns came up and they could get their presents for me. Bless. Although they did miss the memo of Mothers' Day being the day that Mum could sleep in. At 6:45 the kids went into each others' rooms, got dressed for the day and organised their presents. They were putting stickers onto their gift bags when one ripped. This lead to the start of the morning - tears from Alexander. (I started filming because they were talking about running in to surprise me. So I had my phone ready when this started happening. I messaged James saying 'How has your day started? This is how mine did...'

He eventually came into me to have a cuddle and eventually settled down and I even got a few smiles. 

Once he was settled he headed back to the other 2, got dressed and finished putting a few stickers on. He did have another meltdown over his cupcake being all mushed but I whispered to him that it still tastes good that way. I like it that way. It helped him settle down again.

At 7am the kids ran into my room with big grins on their faces and with their presents. 

They were so excited to give me them. Eliza gave me her paper flowers that she made on Friday during home school. Daniel gave me the cards book and I just loved reading the messages that the kids wrote and got teary when I read a message from James. I loved seeing how much Daniel wrote! And it was so sweet.

Love these messages in our cards book. Especially love how much Daniel wrote when I know how much he doesn't like writing at the moment!

So nice to get a beautiful tweet from my gorgeous Jens for Mother's Day.

They then asked me to open their presents. Alexander gave me some Celebration chocolates and a mushed cupcake (well, the icing was just every where). Eliza kept telling me that she was giving me my favourite thing. When I opened it up, it was a jar of Nutella. I haven't had that for ages and the kids had never tried it! They were pretty keen to have some at breakfast so I told them that they could have some after cereal. Daniel gave me a box of Roses chocolates. I said 'I'm glad that we aren't with Daddy in Hervey Bay because Charlie might eat this box too.' (He ate the box at Christmas time.) The cute thing is that that was the reason Daniel decided to buy this gift for me. (I also need to say a huge shout out to Mum and Dad for helping the kids buy the presents and wrap them for me while James was away).

I got smothered in kisses and cuddles by my kiddies.

My gorgeous kiddies

Crazy kiddies wanted a photo with their feet

Kisses

Smooshy kisses

Slobbery kisses

The kids then went out to the lounge room and started to do a puzzle while I had my shower, set up the art gallery and then made breakfast. 

We enjoyed our cereal, bananas and then nutella toast. The kids really liked their first taste of Nutella. They were licking it off (I told them that they needed to bite the toast, not just lick it). Alexander said 'It tastes like chocolate!'. Yes it does buddy.

We then watched church online, seeing ourselves welcome everyone, sang some songs together and listened to a pretty awesome sermon by Will. 

Was kinda cool to hear him talk about the Walking Art Gallery and how that is helping bring our community together. I love that it has done this. Eliza had a big grin on her face when he started to talk about it. During the sermon the kids were pretty good with doing the puzzle so that I could listen (and they were listening too). 

After church we did the kids' talk. They were listening and responding ok to it, although struggling with the concept of being Salty. When we finished I told the kids that I was going to make them some popcorn and put a bit of salt on some of it so they can taste the difference between being salty and not. This was met with 'I don't like it, I don't want it' from each of the kids. I was over it so said 'Fine. I won't put any salt on it then. Don't worry about it'. This then led to Daniel screaming at me that he wanted salt on his popcorn. Eliza was in tears because she wanted salt on it. Alexander was in tears too. Sigh. Trying to do the right thing for all of them but following what they said of not liking salty popcorn and they all ended up in tears. I told them that I was over it and headed to my room for some time to myself. I was in tears. I was feeling like every time I try to do something special for the kids or something fun, one or all of them end up in tears or screaming at me. It made me feel like I shouldn't bother to do special things for the kids. It made me feel sad because the fun picture I had in my mind of simple things like salt and unsalted popcorn was not how it turned out. After my tears finished (and started, and finished, and started, and finished), I had read my Bible, prayed and had spoken with James. I came out of my room, I had moved on.

We headed up to the shops and got some salted hot chips to have a lunchtime. It was a yummy lunch of chicken rolls and hot chips. The kids enjoyed it too!

After lunch we facetimed Nana and Poppy, Grayma and Auntie Sue to sing happy birthday to Mum. They were able to meet together to celebrate Mothers' Day and Mum's birthday which was lovely. We enjoyed cupcakes together too. 

Then we facetimed Daddy who was with everyone up in Hervey Bay. So nice to see everyone and I'm so glad that James was up there to have lunch with his family. So important during this time. His Mum deserved to have him there.

Such a beautiful photo!!

The kids then rode their bikes outside and my lovely friend Anne came around with her kids for a quick catch up. We sat out the front on the curb while the kids rode their bikes and played together. It was lovely to sit and have a cup of tea and just chat about the past few days and how we are going. She is so sweet to come around on her special day too. I really am blessed with her friendship.

While we were chatting Auntie Sue and Grayma came around to have a look at the art gallery. It was nice to see Grayma today as I haven't seen her since Eliza's birthday. We said bye to Anne and the kids and had a brief chat with Auntie Sue and Grayma. 

Our neighbours Kathy and Adam and their kids came down to look at the gallery. They asked if it was ok to put some of their son's artworks out on their lawn which I said absolutely to. The kids were so excited to see some more art on the lawns. So cool!

We then went for a walk down to the bush. We didn't walk far but headed to the little waterfall. The kids loved seeing the waterfall and then we had leaf boat races. Daniel was very excited to cheer on his leaves. Alexander came close to falling in, but fortunately didn't. Eliza liked watching her leaf float down the waterfall. It was nice to just have this moment of peace with the kids. They also enjoyed riding their 'horses' in the quarry. 

Alexander was tired after all his riding

Reading the history sign

Riding their horses

So pretty

Leaf boat races

Cheering on the leaf (and almost falling in)

Daniel excitedly cheering on his leaf

Heading back via the stairs

Gorgeous clouds in the sky! Eliza commented that it looked like God painted them

Once home the kids rode their bikes a little bit more and then we had dinner. I'm so grateful to James for cooking us some spag bol before he left. It was perfect to just heat up for dinner tonight and the kids loved it! 

We had a banana milkshake for dessert. The kids then wanted to sit in their caravans for a bit which I was fine with as it was only 5:40pm. While they played I did the washing up.

After they were ready for bed and still in their caravans I decided to finish the night off with reading some more of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. 

The kids loved it, were so good at listening and were really into the book. I'm glad that I chose to do this. We then read a book each at bedtime and they headed off to sleep.

The rest of my night I should have cleaned up the house, but to be honest I can't be bothered. The back table is set up for school tomorrow so that is what is important. At this stage, I clean up the mess, turn around and it is made again. Not so fun. So instead I'm just leaving it and cleaning up parts as the time goes by. I would prefer it to be a clean house but it is one less battle that I am picking. So instead, I sat on the couch, wrote this blog post while watching the end of McLeod's Daughters and had some ice cream. I also got to have a chat with James. I really miss him and today it would have been lovely to have him here with us (to celebrate together but also I just have a bit of a break from everything) but I am really glad that he is able to have this time up in Hervey Bay with his family, to help out, to chat with, to be a listening ear and to just be present with them. He is an amazing man who puts his family first, whether it is the 5 of us, or his family in Hervey Bay. Both ways it is so special that he is up there.

So today was a different Mothers' Day. It had good moments, and hard moments but I wouldn't change it one bit! 

Eliza's photo of me

I'm also so grateful for my Mumma and for Julie, my Mumma-in-law. They both are such amazing, caring, supportive women who I look up to and am grateful to have in my life. Happy Mothers' Day to them too. 

The Bible Passage attached to my gift bags