Mother's Day 2024

From the only available spot of shade I could find, in the few moments between arriving home from church and having everyone completely disheveled again, I bring you “A Mother’s Day Photo of Nine of Ten Kids”. As for today, I was woken by my four youngest (two hours earlier than I was hoping) with a breakfast in bed of: two (heavily salted) fried eggs, a bowl of cereal, a bowl of yogurt, a bowl of almonds, a glass of chocolate milk, a piece of toast with jam AND a full peanut butter and jelly sandwich with, for some inexplicable reason, a thick layer of butter on top. There were also several dishes full of water and floating weed flowers. (When I messaged a picture of this breakfast to my sister she responded: “Josh [her husband] made me the most amazing omelette just now. I should have thrown it in his face and demanded your breakfast of kings!” 😄) Shortly after, as I tried to go back to sleep, I heard the sound of far-off wailing outside my bedroom window. I opened the blinds and saw Hans in the distance—sobbing something about water and falling and ants—with one rain boot on (the other … simply missing), and his church pants (why he’d opted to put them on before actually being forced to on this occasion is beyond me) soaked up to his knees. But, in truth, I’m glad that nearly 24 years into parenting I still get to be experiencing this kind of Mother’s Day … magic. ✨😄 Happy Mother’s Day y’all. ❤️

(And these two lovely, unedited gems of the kids ought to be included here as well. Mike was trying to get the kids to all look at me but as you can see his getting their attention by throwing a goose egg in the air didn't quite get them looking directly at me. Haha. I like their eyes and faces all following the eggs flight into the air and down again into the grass.)