What Can I Say? It's Mother's Day

OK, it's now been a month since I posted! I kept telling myself that after this weekend, my life would settle down. And, it should. Not pictures for this post, just a quick update and more details later. We had several significant events over the last weeks. First, Amelia turned 8! My first post on the blog was when she turned 7 and now a whole year has gone by...(if I knew then what my next year would be like, I think I would have crawled under a rock.) But, day by day, we are getting through it.

Amelia had a great birthday...she is still incredibly committed to endangered animals. So, for her bday party, we took a group of friends to see the Disney movie Earth. It is the same footage from the Discovery Channel series Planet Earth (of which we watched every episode twice). But, it was a perfect way to spend her birthday. Then, just yesterday, she received her First Communion. A beautiful mass and an incredibly beautiful girl all dressed in white...of course, I jump ahead 20 years or more to when she gets married and the tears flowed!

Today is Mother's Day...I have never been that into Mother's Day...a definite Hallmark holiday. But, the fact that it's at every store, on the TV, on the radio, etc, it's hard not to think about. So, today marked my first one without my mom here. And, it happens to fall on the 10th of the month (she died on Jan 10th so I've come to dislike the 10ths of every month since it marks an anniversary of sorts). To top it off, my husband left for a business trip in the morning. So, I decided to just get out of here for the day. I took the kids to mass at 9 a.m. and then headed to to King's Dominion afterward...how can I think about anything when I'm riding really scary rollercoasters all day! I'm really glad we went...I nearly had a breakdown at mass this morning. The first communicants participated in the May Crowning ceremony today and we sang lovely songs about Mary. I had to leave at one point to collect myself. I am trying so hard to focus on MY being a mother and not so much on my no longer having a mother (on this earth, that is). So, after church, we drove to the park and had a wonderful day...beautiful weather, no lines.
I am so blessed to have my 4 amazing kids. Because of them, our lives are busy, chaotic, and loud, but I wouldn't have it any other way...

More later...