Mother's Day 2015

Everyone wants a perfect family.  I had always hoped to provide my kids with a happy, wholesome family life,

Typical American family?

but sadness and chaos have intruded into our lives these past few years.  Can anyone relate to this?  I'm not the only one, right??

I am a huge fan of The Pioneer Woman. I watch all her cooking shows and read her blogs.  I am green with envy over her idealic family life and am convinced she has the most wholesome, well adjusted kids on the planet.  I stare at her picture and try to absorb all the love, security and goodness of her perfect and organized life.

The Pioneer Woman - I want to be her

Maybe some of it rubbed off, because I had the most amazing Mothers Day this year. 

It started out as an ordinary Sunday morning - puttering through the house, making coffee, walking the dogs, wondering when I was going to hear from my kids.  I was sitting outside in the sunshine, reading the paper when Kyle called my cell phone but when I answered, “Hello?  Hello?”  there was no response.  I could hear him talking, and could hear Krista’s voice too but couldn’t hear what they were saying.  I realized Kyle had “butt dialed” me and shouted into the phone to get his attention but he couldn’t hear me.  I was glad they were doing something together and their voices sounded happy. 

Around 11 in the morning, they showed up with coffee and a box of donuts for me.  Not just any donuts, but my favorite – Peterson's!   

Feast your eyes on this display of yummy decadent goodness

 If you’re going to splurge on a donut, it has to be from Peterson's Donut Corner!!!    

Best donuts ever!

They also brought me gifts – Kyle found a set of glass meditation balls similar to the ones my German mom showed us during our trip to Europe last summer.   

He also bought me the latest CD from my favorite group,  Coldplay.  Krista gave me a DVD of Silver Linings Playbook, the movie she and I had seen together and loved.   

I was touched by their thoughtful gifts and that they would spend the day with me.  

Another surprise – Krista asked if we could ride bikes.  After long, frustrating years of trying to coax them into riding bikes with me, now they actually wanted to!  I went to the garage and began a frustrating search for parts to the bike rack.  Half an hour later I had the rack secured to the car and started pumping air in tires.  Sadly, I could only find two bikes with tires that worked.  Oh well, Kyle could ride the skate board.  I pumped and pumped until I realized that all my huffing and puffing wasn't making a difference in the flat tires. 

Doesn't resemble me or my bike but great picture, right?  Also, how wholesome does she look?!

I decided it would be easier to haul the bikes to the gas station and fill them with air.  I hefted the two good bikes to their places on the rack.  This is also no easy feat.  The bikes are heavy and clumsy and when I lift them up, the front wheel turns into my chest and the pedals scratch against my legs.  Then when they are finally on the rack, the pedals always seem to get stuck in the spokes of the adjacent bike.  

OK, why does everything have to be so hard??  It's Mother's Day and I just want to go on a relaxing bike ride with my kids!   Now my fingers were smudged black with bike grease and sweat was dripping into my eyes, making them burn and causing my mascara to smear.  

Krista packed a picnic basket while Kyle and I drove the bikes to the gas station.  On the way, someone pulled up beside us and indicated for Kyle to roll down the passenger window.  He told us something had fallen off one of our bikes and was lying in the middle of the road.  Of course - my brand new bike basket. I hoped we would find it on the way back and it wouldn't be ruined.  We inflated tires, picked up Krista and headed toward the lake.  Kyle shamed me for having so much junk in the back ("Your car looks like Dad's." - Yikes!), but seemed to enjoy trying on my stylish Western hat.

 

Que suave

On the way we saw the basket lying in the very busy street.  I couldn't just stop with all the cars behind me and fretted what to do.  At the stop light, Kyle, my hero, jumped out and picked it up.  He crossed the road and waited for us on the shoulder.  As we approached, he stuck out his thumb hitchhiker style which made Krista and I laugh so hard we snorted. 

My hero

We drove down to Lake Hodges

Krista and our gourmet lunch

and ate cheese and crackers on the picnic table by the tree Kyle and Mitchell had climbed years ago. 

tree worshiper

We  feasted, reminisced about the past, then walked back to the car to get the bikes. Kyle had the longboard and set off ahead of us.  When I took the bikes down, I realized my blue bike could not be ridden.  I had previously run over the kickstand with my car (as one often does), breaking it off, but now saw that I had also bent the pedal so that it couldn’t move around the wheel.  I told Krista to ride the one good bike and I would run along beside her.  She protested and I promised we could take turns.  Kyle started texting us:  where the heck were we?

I jogged and walked while Krista rode slowly next to me on the bike.  Kyle made it all the way to the end and half way back before we caught up to him.  It was sunny but not too warm, and the water in Lake Hodges sparkled with dots of sunlight.

After our ride, we went back to the house and Kyle sat on the sofa studying the cookbook we had brought back from Italy.   

Best Italian cooking ever!

We were both so impressed with Patrizia’s cooking and bought her recipe book.  I hoped it would inspire Kyle to cook, but he hadn’t been motivated until this day.  He wouldn't tell me what he was planning to make ("it's a secret"), only asking a few cryptic questions about food items.  Then he took Krista with him to Roma’s, our local Italian grocer, to get the ingredients.

 

I put my new Coldplay CD on while they got busy in the kitchen, marveling at how well they worked together. 

 

Five star chefs in the making

I had to resist the urge to hover a bit, worrying about a paper towel which was frighteningly close to the stove.  Krista shooed me out of the kitchen, saying I was not supposed to help.   

"Chill, Mom!"

So I sat on the bar stool and watched them work.  I tried not to seem anxious as I watched suspiciously for signs the house might burn down.

Watch out!

Kyle made spaghetti carbonara (our favorite!!), and Krista made garlic bread and salad.  They served it outside on the bar, our first outdoor dinner of the year.  It was a beautiful afternoon and I was incredibly impressed.  Kyle made just the right amount of pasta, with no leftovers.  I ate all of it and loved every bite.  All the heartache of the past few years seemed to melt magically away. I felt truly blessed.

Later on, we cozied up in front of the fireplace and watched Silver Linings Playbook.  Love that movie.  Love my kids.  Love this day.