I am not a big fan of what I call commercial celebrations like Valentines Day, Mothering Sunday and Fathers Day and because of this I have never encouraged the children to take much notice of these days. If my children want to make me feel like the bestest Mum in the world, I sincerely hope that they don’t feel like they have to wait until Mothers Day to do so!
I also begrudge the way people try to cash in on celebratory days. Flowers seem to go up in price, chocolates get put into presentation boxes and the price suddenly doubles and people are put under great pressure to present their loved ones with a card if nothing else which is all wrong in my mind.
I know my Mum likes to be fussed over on Mothers Day, which I admit I don’t do on the day, but there are times throughout the year that I make an effort and not because the world is telling me I must. Other times of the year I will buy her a plant I know she wants or meet up for lunch, just because I want to and not because it’s Mothers Day and I must!
But saying all that , we did have a really nice Sunday.
We Had A Family Barbecue…
No one wished me Happy Mothers Day, in fact Mothers Day wasn’t even mentioned. I was up early – being an early bird does have it’s advantages – preparing food for the family barbecue we were having was no small task – I found a recipe post for a fresh strawberry and yogurt cake, by a lady called Sommer Collier, a while back and have been dying for an excuse to bake it! We had it for a pudding with vanilla ice cream and it made a very nice pudding indeed.
I must admit that mine didn’t look as good as Sommers, I didn’t have the right tin and I gave my daughter the responsibility of decorating it, but it still tasted mighty fine.
We Took The Dogs For A Nice Walk…
Halfway through the morning I stopped food preparation to take the dogs for a walk up in the mini mountains near our home. The walk was well worth it, the day was warm and as you can see in the pictures there was a slight haze over the island.
I had to take the photographs blindly as the screen on the camera broke a few months ago, so any good photos are captured by pure luck. The camera is old, and as I like to take photo for my blog it was a good excuse to buy a new camera and one that takes 20 megapixel pictures as opposed to the 8 megapixels that our broken camera takes. The new camera should be with us in the next day or two – can’t wait!
The Family Arrived…
We got back from our walk at twelve fifteen and we’d told the family to arrive at about one o’clock, but as they are always late I thought I had plenty of time to finish preparing the food. But no, they decided to rock up early! That just never happens, it’s actually a standing joke that they are always late. So that totally threw me.
When the family get together the house suddenly gets crazy and if one day a ringmaster popped up in the middle of it all, it really wouldn’t surprise me.
When I say we had a family barbecue, there weren’t many of us as most of the family still live in the UK. It was us four plus my Mum, Dad and Glitzy Mary, who is a surrogate family member. She started off as a work colleague of Mums, when I was merely a teenager and over the years she has become part of the family.
She is well into her seventies – although you would never know! She flies over to see us for a few weeks twice a year. She is as batty as they come and loves all things glitzy – hence the name! She has never been married or had children – which is probably why she doesn’t look her age! But she is a part of our family, she fits in nicely, puts up with all of our rubbish and always feels free to add her own, which is what being family is all about!
I did eventually get the food sorted and hubby got the meat going over the hot coals. We were eating by three o’clock, which for us is really good, we aren’t the most organized of people.
After eating we spent a few hours enjoying each others company, just sitting and chatting. Which we made the most of as my husband was really fortunate to have a Sunday off in May, as it is tourist season and he won’t have a day off now until mid October.
The Family Left…
At around eight o’clock everyone left and the kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it or we had been burgled. It took me a good hour and a half to clean the kitchen spotlessly, and as tired as I was I didn’t mind, as it was good to move about a bit and I just listened to my music as I cleaned. Although I can’t say that it wasn’t one of those times when I wished we had a dishwasher!
By the time I fell into bed I felt both physically and mentally exhausted. I love my family, but they do exhaust me, in fact any type of socializing leaves me feeling drained, which is probably why I try to avoid it most times.
What I was Thinking As I Went To Bed…
As I bumbled around, getting ready for bed, I couldn’t help but smile at the fact, that although we didn’t set out to celebrate Mothers Day, we kind of did. Me nor my Mum were presented with gifts or cards. I certainly didn’t get time to relax – I save that for Fridays – and we had a great day, which may not have been so great had we set out to celebrate it as Mothers Day.
Did you celebrate Mothers Day? If you did what did you do that you enjoyed most? What made it special for you? Feel free to share your story in the comments below…
Copyright © 2014 Debbie Roberts
© 2014 – 2016, Debbie. All rights reserved.
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