Rambling Thoughts for Sunday

About five years ago, I attended the funeral of  a great-aunt I had not seen in years.  She was 91 at the time of her death and lived the last decade or so in seclusion with her adult sons, two of whom had never married.  After the funeral, my mother filled me in on a little family secret.  The oldest son, whose elevator never seemed to reach the top floor, had been born to my great-aunt when she was only 15 years old.  She had been raped by a man whose children she helped care for.  She concealed the pregnancy, then gave birth, alone, in a bathroom, to a baby who was in breech position.  Although he wasn't anything like the children who would come later when she married, you would never know it.  She doted on him the same as she did the others.  What an incredibly strong person she was!  I thought this was quite a different pro-life story and fitting to be shared on Mother's Day.

I amuse myself sometimes by thinking of how hard it is to categorize myself.  Carol McKinley has an interesting little test at her blog, The Tenth Crusade.  Give it a whirl and see where you come out.  I haven't done so yet but I know I will not be in the staunch conservative camp.  I may create my own little test, just for fun, to see where everyone fits in.

Sometimes I read blogs that really get me po'd.  So you know what? I stopped reading them.  Some things in life are baffling.  There are bloggers who have the nerve to ask for money for their various functions.  I've been suckered into donating to a few of them.  I won't be doing that anymore.  In the end, a handout is a handout, regardless of where it comes from.  So no, I don't think it's more admirable to collect from your readers on a regular basis than it is to hold your hand out to Uncle Sam. Either way, you're not pulling your own weight when you should and could be.   There, I said it and I feel so much better!

I got my sister a beautiful bouquet of roses for Mother's Day.  She doesn't have any kids.  She tried for years but it didn't work out and in the end, she concluded it was best that it didn't.  She wound up divorced from her first husband shortly after she threw in the towel on fertility treatments.  I got her the flowers because she has three canine kids.  These dogs, labs, all three of them, live better than my own three biologicals.  They go on vacations.  They have coordinated Baker sheets for inclement weather.  They go to Doggie Daycare and have sleepovers at Grandmom's house.  My mother even makes the oldest one blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  My relationship with my sister is not the best, but I hate the idea of my mother and I getting accolades from our progeny today while my sister is excluded.  I have a cute little Mother's Day card with a gaggle of labs on it.  I think she'll be pleasantly surprised.  Maybe she'll even put her cell phone down for five minutes to talk to me.

Speaking of Mother's Day, it was all I could stand at work on Friday as the other nurse managers discussed their plans for today.  They exchanged ideas on dinner reservations.  We have never gone out to dinner on Mother's Day.  Want to know why?  Because my FATHER doesn't like going out to dinner on Mother's Day.  How's that for irony?  Kind of like giving your wife a vacuum cleaner as a present today, right?  My mother is going to be canonized for living with this man for over 50 years.  Whatever else in life she has done, God will give her a pass because she has not only tolerated him, she has catered to him and accorded him respect worthy of a king.  It doesn't bother me.  Honestly, I am not going to win any Mother of the Year awards and I have never been one to demand or expect anything special today.  Anything extra that comes my way is more than I could ask for.

My husband offered to make breakfast for me, but he only knows two methods of cooking - raw, and burnt. I suggested he go to McDonald's and get some 'hotcakes" to go.  He did.  Rebecca decided we should go as a family to the TLM today.  Another topper for the cake.  The boys have promised they will dress decently and behave appropriately.  If they don't, I'll offer it up.

Happy Mother's Day not only to all the moms but to the children who made them moms as well.