Mother's Day Rant

So Mother's Day is supposed to be a great day where we celebrate the women in our lives, right? So, as a mother, I'm supposed to be celebrated? Is that how it works? Today has been quite the opposite. Today has been one of "those" days. And it all started yesterday. Yes, yesterday Holland decided to only take one nap - which she can't handle at all and she doesn't "make up for it" by taking a longer nap later...or even sleeping longer at night. Result: uber-grumpy the next day. So, I get out of the shower this morning at like 7:30 and hear Holland crying. Great. I go in and try to calm her down, but it's obvious that she's not going back to sleep. With my hair still dripping wet and not combed, I decide to leave her to at least go get dressed. The one miracle of the day: Holland laid in her bed and was content and quiet for almost 30 minutes while I got ready! That was definitely a highlight of my day :)

We head off to church. Church is always difficult because Holland's normal naptime is 10am...right at the end of Sacrament meeting...and since was especially moody today from not sleeping enough, church was a NIGHTMARE. Yes, I know that may sound extreme, but let me continue with my rant and paint the whole picture for you. Holland doesn't know how to sit still - ever. The best she's done is like 15 minutes of watching cartoons sitting on my lap - but that's only because she was sick. Still, I make her at least sit on my lap until the Sacrament is over so she can maybe someday learn to be reverent. But right before the Sacrament, she dropped the toy that she was playing with so I put her down so she could go pick it up - big mistake - she wouldn't sit on my lap from there on out. It was a CONSTANT battle to get her to be quiet during the Sacrament - mind you this is in a singles ward where the is ABSOLUTE silence, except for all of the noise that Holland makes. So I'm doing everything I can think of to get her to be quiet while she's squirming and fussing and people keep turning around and looking at us...not to mention Bryan giving me the look like "you should take her out in the hall", except for the fact that I would then miss the Sacrament because the guys passing it don't go out in the hall because it's not like a normal ward building, it's the RB. I guess I probably should have taken her out in the hall (granted, she wasn't crying the entire time, but every little noise she makes is magnified by 10 since this is a singles ward and there are no other kids). Finally the Sacrament is over so I put her down and let her go. She was still extra moody and grumpy because she was super tired, so she'd cry when she wanted to go down a stair, throw a toy and then cry when she couldn't get it, cry for me to pick her up and then squirm around and point to the ground until I put her down, only to cry more to be picked up again. And all of this is going on while one of the guys in the ward is giving talk/lecture about what a good mother is and what mothers should be doing and how they should act. Great - that's just what I need. I was really close to grabbing Holland and leaving right there. I think the breaking point was when he said that:

"it's a mothers job to be there to clean up after their kids"

Wow - I usually am not easily offended, but this one kind of made me mad. But thank heaven for J.D. - I guess he was the second miracle of the day because he happily kept Holland entertained for most of the rest of the meeting (and I happily tuned out most of the rest of that guy's talk). Anyway, I then decided to skip the rest of the singles ward and go to our real ward since this will technically be our last Sunday there - besides, I need to hear a real talk about mothers and plus, I definitely want the chocolate that they pass out at the end of the meeting. Unfortunately, Holland was still grumpy, but she did behave a bit better because there were more kids to keep her entertained. Sadly, I missed most of the second talk because Holland was done with sitting in the row (and the first part of the talk was really good, so I'm sad I didn't hear the rest of it), but then they opened it up for people to bear their testimonies about mothers. I'm glad I got to hear some better and more appreciative words about mothers. And I'm glad I got my chocolate - and I already feel a bit better after having some :) And since I know we'll be having a CHOCOLATE BUTTERFINGER PUDDING CAKE tonight for dessert, that's probably going to make me feel better too.

Sorry for the long rant, and I doubt too many people actually read this whole thing but I needed to let it out. The point is to just remember to be nice to your mothers. And don't tell them that they're supposed to be there to clean up your messes and feed you (yes, he also mentioned that). TELL THEM HOW MUCH YOU LOVE THEM AND RESPECT THEM FOR THE THANKLESS SACRIFICES THEY MAKE EVERYDAY! Happy Mother's Day!