un Divided Attention

Today may be Mother's Day, but it also happens to be my honey's 32nd birthday. (That's right, Rus, I just ratted you out!) What a horrible way to ruin all pampering, on both sides!
My neighbor was visiting with us as we got home from church...his hair was sweat-matted under a grungy hat, and his holey pants were covered in dirt, all signs of his efforts for a flowerbed for his wife. He thought it was a fabulous idea for Rus to have his birthday on the same day; what a great, valid way to avoid [love induced] slave labor!
So instead of one of us pushing the other out of bed this morning, we both got up at the same time. Rus made me breakfast, I made the kids' breakfast. I decorated Rus's door with candy bars, he gave me an assorted box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Yum. I had Rus followed with an annoying singing "happy birthday" card at church; I came home with flowers and cards from my kids. I made him lunch and let him take a nap, and I got some peace and quiet to read a book. We both hit it big at dinner with the Goolds and Kinghorns; Taffy can cook me meat any night of the week! I made the pies for dessert and a cake for Rus, but Rus did make the crusts for me. After he burned the ones I made. After I left them in his care so I could take Jacob to tball yesterday. I couldn't even be mad at the lingering smell of burned food when there were two fresh pie crusts sitting on the stove waiting to be cooked.
Last night Rus and I had an extra special date (not to be confused with the one the night before where we went to dinner and saw Iron Man 2, transported on Rus's motorcycle...Rus learned very quickly how to get me to hug him tighter...). You remember that wonderful Astro van from the last post? Well, would you believe, Rus taught me how to change the radiator on that beautiful beast of burden. I had grease up to my elbows, but the kids were in bed and we had fun together. [Love is someone you'd be happy digging a ditch with, as Taffy says, or in this case, changing a radiator.] Turns out my long slender fingers are good at finding nuts and bolts that Rus drops into the vast abyss of the engine. The guy we bought it from didn't necessarily do us dirty, it just turned out to be good timing on his part and bad timing on our part. As the Payne family will tell you, "Sometimes you bite the bear, and sometimes he bites you."

And to my own beautiful mother...I thought of you today when the men's choir sang this song:

I often go walking in meadows of clover,
And I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue.
I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over;
Dear mother all flowers remind me of you.

O Mother, I give you my love with each flower
To give forth sweet fragrance a whole lifetime through;
For if I love blossoms and meadows and walking,
I learn how to love them, dear mother, from you.

Mom I love you! Thank you for teaching me about charity and love and friendship. As Abraham Lincoln said, "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."