Mother's Day is one of those modern holidays that I have a hard time with. Both my mother and Jim's have passed on, and neither one of us have Grandmothers that are still alive. I personally have a hard time with people making a special day for mothers, because for me every day is mother's day. I certainly don't forget I'm a mother, and I know my children and husband don't forget. The constant barrage of hugs, kisses, pestering, guilt trips and playful nagging reminds them ever day.
Still, I received a beautiful card with a rose drawn on it made by my son, along with a cyber created mother's day message, and a loaf of banana bread cooked by my daughter along with a sibling dual/tag team cleaned bath tub. Jim brought home flowers...the kind sporting big yellow sunflowers that just jump out at you with bright faces. I'm a sucker for sunflowers, although it's one of the few flowers that when you cut them the whole plant dies. I have a tough time with that, though their beauty helps me get over it a little.
The majority of my day was spent sitting in front of the computer battling it out with the last few changes I needed to make to my dissertation. At 4PM, I showered and our family piled into the car and we went to Sky High, an Indoor Trampoline place where Mother's Day mothers (versus those non-mothers day mothers) were invited to jump for free. Lucky me. The jump time was for an hour, but my body lasted only 30 minutes. My nemesis was the foam pit, which is a giant pit of square foamy dark and light blue blocks. The idea behind the foam pit is that a jumper can careen down the trampoline path and launch themselves into the pit at any height, at any angle, and emerge unscathed.
I discovered it's difficult as hell to pull oneself out of a pile of foam of once you jump high on the trampoline and catapult yourself into the stuff. Once the rescue team pulled me out, I vowed not to subject myself to such embarrassment again. Out of self-preservation and a sense of decency, I decided that the foam pit was a Public Health hazard...(I mean, kids could sneeze in there and wipe their buggers on a spongy block and who would know?)...and so I avoided it and admired the brave biological warfare divers from afar hoping they wouldn't emerge with nasty green rashes that would take over their skin and cause it to crawl away.
Jim was more successful than me, and spent a good amount of time in the pit, while I went to the flat trampoline section and practiced in-the-air jumping jacks, spins, butt jumps and stale-fish airs. Sean rotated between the dodge-ball section and doing double flips into the foam pit. Kira, who was still recovering from last night's endless stream of loud music combined with senior prom dancing, declined to jump on the tramps due to sore muscles, but she congenially took pictures of the family and our funny antics.
After jumping for an hour, we took obligatory tourist photos in a large "queen" chair, then packed into the car and headed to Sushi-Fresh for dinner. It never fails that almost every Japanese place in America is run by Koreans (nothing against Koreans, but they aren't Japanese), but the nice thing was that this restaurant in particular had the traditional food conveyor belt that is typical of sushi-bars in Japan. We waited for vegetarian dishes to come around and took the decorated plates off the belt and ate tomago (cooked egg squares on top of rice) and edamame (unshelled soy-beans). All in all, it was a good time. Edamame, veggie-rolls, miso-soup and veggie-tempura were well cooked and fresh. Michael, our server (Korean-American and taking a year off from school before going to college) just graduated high school last year and was thinking about going into graphic design. It was fun to hear his questions about our vegetarian diet, and have him share what he was thinking he would do in the future while he expertly rolled our veggie rolls. As the evening waned,we said our goodbye's in a variety of languages (everything except Korean, which I still don't know how to say goodbye in), and headed to the Wild Cherry next door for frozen yogurt. It was a hedonistic evening filled with activity and food, and after eating the chocolate yogurt sprinkled with Health Bar crumbles and mini-peanut butter cups, I was convinced my stomach could do no more.
The drive home was filled with fun family conversation, and once we pulled into the driveway I remembered Kira's banana bread in the kitchen waiting to be consumed. We all tried a piece, and I have to say, it was definitely tasty despite how full I was. The walnuts were the perfect consistency, the inside of the banana cake sweet, and it was moist and yummy with the half glass of coconut milk I drank down with the bites of it.
As the evening now comes to a close, and Sean takes a bath while Kira and Jim laugh over the funny lines delivered in "The Proposal", I count myself extremely lucky to have such a beautiful, wonderful family. I'm glad I'm home this Mother's Day. Last year I was in Bagram Afghanistan, literally in tears because I missed my family so terribly. Our lives are so short, life is so precious, and the time we have to share with each other is finite...it's a crime to take it all for granted. I reflect on it all as I get ready for bed, and I give thanks that I am so fortunate to have my husband and my children in my life, and only hope that every being in the world is able to know the love of a mother, the embrace of a loved one, and the joy and comfort of family. We all deserve it, and each and every being in the world will be in my prayers before I sleep tonight, as I wish them this simple but priceless happiness.
Sounds like a wonderful day (and I recognise those kinds of hair cuts.
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