Mother's Day: Behind the Scenes

Sunday was another in a series of really great Mother's Days. For the past seven years, I have felt loved and special on Mother's Day. This year was no exception. The last couple years, Steve and the boys have gone to an area grocery store to decorate a special Mother's Day cake for me. The first year they gave me the cake, Andrew asked breathlessly, "Isn't it the most BEAUTIFUL cake you've ever seen, Mom?" (It was.) This year they decorated a giant cookie cake. It is my favorite part of Mother's Day each year to see how excited the boys (and Steve!) get over this project.

I also got a beautiful necklace handstamped with the kids' names. My friend Alely made it. You can see her work here.

And...I got a new Bible. I have mixed feelings about this. I love my old Bible. I've had it since I was 17. I love looking through it and seeing underlined/highlighted passages and remembering why I marked them. I love how the old notes jotted in the margins bring to mind my beloved high school pastor preaching or the discussions we had with the girls' group that crowded into our college dorm room. There is even the note I wrote on the front page reminding myself to buy the study book we did in our first small group at our church. I know where everything is in that Bible. I might not always be able to cite something chapter and verse, but I can see it in my head and say, "That's in this book, on the left-hand side, about midway down the page" and turn right to it.

But, my sweet old Bible looks like this (missing cover thanks to Zoe, who ate it along with lots of copies of Guideposts back in her Christian Literature phase):

And I don't care. My friend Jen gets a kick out of seeing me with my ratty old Bible because she says it's just not like me. (To which I say, come on, Jen...you've seen the inside of my car. I'm really not that put-together!) However, in the past few weeks, my Bible has entered a new level of decrepitude. I really can't depend on it holding together any more, and I am afraid for its safety.

So, the kids got me this:

It's pink. It's called the Busy Mom's Bible. Like, like. I'm excited to think about what the notes and markings in this Bible might reveal about this current stage of life 15 or 20 years down the road. And I think it'll be a really good thing to read these new pages with new eyes.

I think it would be really great to attribute all this thoughtfulness every year to my kids, but I can't -- especially not Mother's Day 2003, when Andrew wasn't even born! No, the kids love Mother's Day, but they are still too little to arrange the kind of sweet Mother's Days I have experienced. The mastermind behind all my special days is Steve. I love how he encourages the kids to get excited to celebrate Mom! (I also love that he lets me sleep in and take a 3-hour nap on Mother's Day.) Thanks for being the Daddy behind Mother's Day, Steve!