My 4th Mother’s Day
As I mentioned yesterday, I completely overlooked posting about my Mother’s Day! I think I was a little excited about my first Not Me Monday post, as Mother’s Day would have been a natural thing to blog about at that same time. I did post about the baby dedication, but not Mother’s Day. Shame on me!
The week before Mother’s Day, my darling husband called me from work with an idea. This is no oddity around here. He’ll call with an idea or question or favor. The call will be brief and to the point, then we both go on about our days…until the next call!
This idea was about my Mother’s Day gift. He didn’t know if I would like it, and he said that if I didn’t, that would be fine, but he was thinking a tree would make a good gift. The only downside, he pointed out, is that when we move (some day), the tree won’t be able to come with us. I surprised myself when I told him that I loved the idea (that wasn’t the surprising part!), and that it would be okay that the tree couldn’t come with us because I would at least get to enjoy it as long as we are at this house, and I will get to watch it grow as I watch our boys grow.
I finally made it to the nursery to look at trees on Saturday (after Daddy and Big Brother made a trip to Lowe’s for a “special project”). I stopped by on my way to a baby shower while the boys stayed home with Jeff…a first for us for any length of time! I was sure I wanted a flowering tree, and we would need one that would do well in full sun. The young man helping me really knew his stuff, but I couldn’t decide because I wasn’t sure where I would want it. And if you know me, you know I am a visual person…I needed to be able to visualize the tree in its spot before I could make a decision.
So I headed on to the shower and had a good time. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself without any children to attend to! I went on home afterwards with the intent of heading back to the nursery after checking in. When I arrived home, I was instructed to close my eyes. When I opened them, I saw this (without the paint on the prints…it was added later):
And I got choked up when I saw it. Who wouldn’t?! I love it!!! And I had NO idea what they were making! I was truly surprised!
I then returned to the nursery with Big Brother to check out trees again. I secretly hoped he would have some input, but he did not. He just enjoyed being outside, eating his crackers, and I left again without making a decision.
After discussing it with Jeff, driving in front of the house, standing on the sidewalk in front of the house, and standing in various spots in the back yard, I went back to the nursery for a third time and decided to look at shade trees. After seeing a few, I decided on an October Glory Red Maple, as we had a maple at our previous home next to our deck, and we loved it!
Here is my new shade tree, which we used today!
The leaves will turn, of course, red in the fall. Red is a fave color around here, you know?!
I love my Mother’s Day gifts! And I love my boys! All three of them!
