Teaching My Children to Lie, and Other Mother's Day Gifts

(I have four posts in my drafts folder right now.  Only one of them is not a Random Thoughts Thursday post.  I don't know what's wrong with me that I can't complete a single blog post these days.  It's been over a month.  I think I'm just burned out from too much sitting in front of the computer while I was taking classes.  Or, at least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  But, so help me, I am determined to actually hit the "publish" button before the day is done.  I don't even care any more what the post looks like.  So, you know, heads up :) )

Today is Mother's Day.  It's also my birthday.  I'm...old.  Okay, I'm not really that old.  In fact, I'm younger than most of my friends these days.  But I'm older than I've ever been, and while I think I'm handling it fairly well, it's still kind of a big number.  Chris and I have a kind of mutual agreement that we don't need to make a big deal of each other's birthdays.  Mostly we just don't have the energy, but when your birthdays fall a day apart, the celebrating just gets to be too much.  So we typically don't do a whole lot, and that's understood without needing to be said, and we're both okay with it.

Even with all that, though, I woke up this morning feeling a little bit bummed - knowing that it was two big days in one, and not much was going to be done to celebrate them.  And knowing that I couldn't complain, because that's just how we roll around here, and because Chris's birthday is tomorrow and I still have no idea what we're giving him (love you, honey!)

We do have one Mother's Day tradition, however, which is that Chris & the girls always make me breakfast in bed.  So even though I generally wake up when Chris gets up, I stay in bed and pretend to be asleep so they can "surprise" me.  I love it.  And that's what happened this morning.  They came in with a tray, two cards, and - what's this? - a great big box.  They made me read the cards first, then an extra card taped to the top of the box, and then I took a closer look at the plate my breakfast was on, and I slowly realized something.

Our plates don't have words on them...

And realization came stronger and stronger as they unpacked the box.  For Mother's Day, for my birthday, they made me a set of plates, each one depicting a different illustration from a children's book, hand-painted by the girls, Chris, and our good friend.  For weeks, my children and my husband, and, as it turns out, several of my friends, have been lying to me.  While I thought they were having playdates and providing free child labor for our friend, they were painting, glazing, and, in Vicki's case, driving all over the place getting these plates ready to surprise me today.

The backs all have something special on them, too, but I was in a
hurry and didn't get a picture

They're beautiful.  They're amazing.  They make me smile and cry and smile again.  They are, quite possibly, the best present I have ever received.  And I refuse to think about the number of lies I was told in order to make it happen.  They were definitely lies for a good cause, and I will cherish the knowledge of them just as much as I will cherish these plates.  They make me happy, and they're a reminder that my family knows what I love and are willing to work hard to surprise me with something they know I'll treasure.

Now I'm just sorry I don't have something equally as epic for Chris's birthday tomorrow.  I guess there's always Father's Day...