Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is somewhat melancholy today.....I'm sitting here in a warm haze of memories and wondering just where did the time go and when was it that they actually grew up? It seems like it wasn't all that long ago that their dad and I would lay in bed and listen to the three little girls scurrying around downstairs in the kitchen - preparing a mother's day feast that they would serve me in bed, lovingly on a tray. One would usually go outside and find some flowers somewhere to pick and stick in a bud vase to accompany the meal. More often than not -it was a bunch of dandelions!

Although I never knew exactly what I'd be dining on- I could always count on the coffee being good! I'd taught them at a tender young age how to load the coffee maker when they got up before me. I remember one morning when my middle daughter came running into the room saying "How many "leaping" teaspoons of coffee again, mommy?"

The meals got better as they got older. Their very first attempt - I got a fried egg that was black on the bottom yet still raw (I'm still not sure how they managed that one.) Another time I got pancakes with a heart made out of chocolate chips on top. The gifts that accompanied the breakfast were even better! One year the youngest made her own perfume for me. She found all the flowers she could outside and threw a little grass in too - then mashed everything all up and let it soak in water overnight. She made me try it on. She made me put more on before we left for church. I'm sure she thought she had the best smelling mommy in the whole place! I'm not sure how those who sat in our vicinity felt.

As the teenage years arrived their dad joined in and I was told to stay in bed and "relax" while they fixed breakfast. I would relax as best as one can - knowing her kitchen is being methodically destroyed by a barrage of well intended cooks who did not know the meaning of "clean up after yourselves..." The food was always good though!

The 2 younger daughters were married last summer. The oldest is a mother herself - although her 2 year old isn't old enough to prepare breakfasts yet... I'm up alone here at the computer sipping a cup of coffee that I brewed myself (4 leaping teaspoons....) After church we'll head over to the middle daughter's house for brunch. Though things have changed - yet still, they remain the same. All three girls have been conferring all week about the joint brunch they will prepare for me and hubby today. The gifts will be more refined. No more homemade perfume.... No more fistfuls of dandelions.... No more hand prints in plaster....

But I know that as I look across the table at each one of them today - their faces will still be beaming just like they did when they were little. They are still my precious little girls - now grown into beautiful young women. The more things change...the more they stay the same.