Happy Mother's Day!

I had a terrific Mother's Day. I usually do, thanks to Rus. Even the year Bekah made me pancakes and used 1/2 cup of salt instead of a 1/2 teaspoon... I get adorable homemade cards with cute drawings of me and my children and corny poems (that totally make me melt), like "Roses are red, with long thorny stems, but I know you love to eat M&Ms" This year Rus had the genius idea to combine my favorite "roses are red" poems and candy bar letters into "roses are red" candy bar cards from each of the kids. I got white kit kats, reeses peanut butter cups, peanut butter m&ms and 100 grand. I ate all of them, mostly by myself, in one day, and only felt guilty for a minute.

The kids each picked out a potted flower for me that I could plant, and they made me pancakes and let me sleep in and Rus even fixed dinner (out of leftovers I'd made the night before...) Bekah made me a sweet shrink-a-dink magnet at school and wrote a poem for me. Beau made me a sunflower out of clay (just like the one Jacob made me two years ago). I have a beautiful collection of sunflower art, actually, and just recently decided to display it on a wall in my house (using push pins because the idea that I'll hang it when it's framed never seems to pan out).

And now for the best gift I received:
On our way to church we pass a little park. On Mother's Day as we were passing the park, we saw a man get out of his car, pick something up out of the middle of the road, and leave it in the parking lot of the park. As we passed right by him and got a better look, I saw that the thing he was relocating was a turtle! I exclaimed this to our kids and they insisted that we turn around and check it out. We did and I have to admit that I was right there along with the kids, asking Rus if we could take it home and "rescue" it.
 


So we did. We used a cage that is normally reserved for protecting our veggies from rabbits, gave the turtle little bowls of food and water, and left him there so we could resume our drive to church.
I think that after three hours of church, everyone knew that we had rescued a turtle from sure death. I have never had my children assemble so quickly after church. They were anxious, worried that he had somehow escaped his enclosure. (And after talking to a few people myself at church and learning that turtles are impressive escape artists, I was a little worried myself.)

It was the best Mother's day present because my children spent hours following that little turtle around my backyard...they were happily entertained and they didn't even fight!

When they weren't stalking the turtle (who proved to be surprisingly fast and well camouflaged), they were researching desert box turtles...like what they eat and how big they get and what type of home they like. Oh, and how to tell if it's a boy or a girl turtle. (Boy.) Within a few days I had planned a little turtle paradise for this guy, who the kids (after much debate), named "Rocky Sarge Mr. Wiggles." I emailed the local turtle and tortoise club (not kidding, there really is one), and received even more information, like that Rocky was probably not a formerly wild turtle but rather an escaped or released pet and that we'd be doing them a favor to keep him and care for him.
By the next weekend, we had erected the "Rocky Sanctuary," [Side note here: I purchased all of the supplies to build this enclosure with Marianne and her friend Noelle in tow. I felt a little superhuman purchasing four 2x10x10' boards (heavy!), two cinderblocks, a big bag of peat moss, medium bark, a water dish and a flat of flowers with two TWO YEAR OLDS "helping" me. Noelle was an angel. My child was running off, playing in the fountains, scaring onlookers by almost running into the parking lot twice, and to top it off, hiding my debit card in my wallet so that I couldn't find it when it was time to pay. Oh such a horrible child...(I type with great love and also great residual resentment)]
I planted most of my Mother's day plants in it, along with impatiens which turtles reportedly love to eat.

...complete with a hibernation pit. (The cinderblock in that far right corner leads to a covered pit where Rocky likes to hide and sleep.) Here is an up close view of that pit...

Again, it was an awesome day. I'm so grateful for Rus and the way he supports me and teaches our kids to respect the role of all mothers.
And I'm enjoying the turtle. Maybe if we keep him secure and alive for a year we can adopt a friend for Rocky. :)