Mother’s Day

Another Mother’s Day has come and gone.  I woke up on Sunday missing Mom.  Mother’s Day has always been about her.  It feels fake to ask my kids to celebrate me.  Mother’s Day came after Teacher Appreciation week which had me feeling good about myself.  It put me in a better place to appreciate my children’s efforts to show me some extra love.

Esther sent me an early morning text saying, “Happy Mother’s Day.”  She’ll be back home on Tuesday if her drive goes according to plan.  She is coming with her friend Jon Ben and his mother.  Three drivers for two cars should give each person a bit of a driving break.  She likes to remind me that she’s an adult and can make her own choices.  This summer she chooses to come home and spend time with us.  I’m looking forward to what time we have together.  Next summer she will be a college graduate and there’s no telling where life will take her next.  If you know of anyone in Fort Worth who needs summer tutoring, send them her way.

Sophia bought all the little kids presents to give to me, a card from Justin, chocolate-covered strawberries from Basil, and truffles that had melted together from Xenia.  I appreciated the homemade feel of the kid gifts, especially the truffle brick.  Sophia is moving into her own apartment next week.  She says she wants to experience living independently and she wants yet another cat.  With her work schedule and mine, we rarely see each other.  Though she’s moving out, it isn’t far.  Maybe we’ll see more of each other.  We plan to make an effort to hang out, and she says she’ll do her laundry over here.  She loves her nanny job and I’m so pleased that God has placed her with a warm loving family.

When I had the little kids around the table for the dinner that Mike and Sophia made for me, I said “Tell me why I’m a great mother.”

Basil answered, “You are a great mother because you like to do whatever I ask you to do for me.”

Mike asked, “Are you trying to brainwash her?”

I laughed, but Basil isn’t entirely wrong.  I like being a yes kind of parent when I can.

He and I just finished all his state-required practice, ending with ten hours of night driving.

Picture this.  One-on-one time with a cheerful and handsome young man, sitting in the dark listening to classical music.  The air scented with his sweet cologne.  He hums along to the symphonic music, smiling.  He’s in his happy place, delighted with my company.  He asks me about my day and is thankful for my presence.  Sounds like a girl’s dream come true.

If only I weren’t terrified.  It’s bad enough to be taking a teenager out for his practice hours, but it’s dark and he subjects me to classical music which I hate listening to.  It’s too much like poetry eliciting big emotions.  The whirl of the William Tell Overture increases my already racing heartbeat.  It sounds like the soundtrack to a thrilling moment in my life when thrills are what I dread the most.  Though he’s a good driver, every change of lanes, every turn is fraught with danger already.  I look over to Basil who bops his head in time.  Driving is the best part of his day, and he appreciates my making the time to take him out.  He is so happy, I haven’t the heart to ask him to turn the music off.

All his hours of practice paid off.  Basil passed his driving test with a ninety-six out of one hundred and a perfect score on his parallel parking.  He is impatiently waiting for his appointment at the Department of Public Safety which we made six months ago.

Jonah put in extra effort for Mother’s Day.  He had Sophia take him to the store where he spent his allowance money on a chocolate bar.  He wrapped it up with a piece of paper that said, “Happy Mother’s Day.”  At thirteen years old he’s growing like crazy.  Last week he asked me if he’ll still be huggable when he’s not a child anymore.  I assured him that he’ll be a huggable man.  Each morning when he greets me, he looks at me gauging whether he’s taller than me yet.  He’s got a few inches to go, but perhaps by the end of summer, he’ll make it.  He’s hoping that we can also spend our summer watching Star Trek Next Generation.  We are on season three.

When a stomach bug rolled through the house a few weeks ago, Jonah fire-hosed the bathroom.  It was the worst mess I’ve seen in all my twenty-one years of being a mother.  I felt mighty accomplished and more than a little sick after cleaning up the walls, toilet, and soiled laundry dripping in the pool of barf on the floor.

Xenia fell behind in her schoolwork after missing school with being sick.  She and I have been spending time at the dining room table working on math together.  She does her back assignments and I check them for her.  While she works on the next one, I write final after final.  It took me half an hour to make a designer problem for my algebra II class, a rational function whose answers were affected by the domain of the initial problem.  I wish all work was as fun.  Next year I should be set with my lesson plans.  I’m again signed up for all the classes I teach this year plus Calculus II.

Xenia has also introduced me to a new children’s series about a mysterious girl named Serafima.  She’s an eleven-year-old heroine with a multitude of cat-like qualities.  Sounds a lot like Xenia.  I am also reading Great Expectations to Xenia on the nights when I go to be later than she does.

Her Mother’s Day gift to me was a thoughtful note of appreciation.  I’ll treasure it in my sock drawer.

I’ve been reading the Moomin Troll series to Justin at night.  He always begs for another chapter or another page.  For Mother’s Day, he gave me lots of cuddles.  He’s the only child who can still sit in my lap and I take every chance I get to enjoy the feeling of a child in my arms.

Xenia isn’t the only child staying up late.  We’ve had a bunch of thunderstorms lately.  Justin wakes up when the wind is wailing, and the rain pelts his windows.  I think I know why.

A few weeks ago, I came upon Jonah, Xenia, and Justin talking in the kitchen.  At first, I was so confused.  Jonah and Xenia were tag-teaming Justin with all sorts of scientific jargon.

“The covalent bonds of the electrons…”

“…magnetic fields….”

I couldn’t make any sense of the situation until Jonah ended it with, “And that’s why you are going to be hit by lightning.”

Science hasn’t ever made complete sense to me, but siblings giving each other grief is a familiar, daily occurrence.

Thursday morning, I woke up with the song “Kids” from “Bye Bye Birdie” in my head.  I serenaded Jonah, Xenia, and Justin who were immediately offended.  How could I think so disparagingly of them?  They didn’t see the humor of the song at all.  I’ve liked it ever since my third-grade music teacher taught it to us for the spring concert in elementary school.  I just laughed at them.

Xenia said, “The song would be okay if you switched kids with boys.”

She is so done with her brothers.  This summer should be interesting.  She’ll have at least two weeks of boy-free summer when they are off at summer camp.  All the kids are looking forward to our community pool opening again after Memorial Day.  I have two or three plans tentative for summer vacation to Florida, Washington, and South Padre Texas, but they are not for certain.  I also plan on doing art and learning to play the flute.  Maybe I’ll finally finish Syra’s Scribbles IV.

I hope your Mother’s Day was filled with love and connection.