Sunday, May 11 -- Mother's Day

Mother's Day greetings and blessings to all those moms out there!

My own Mother's Day coincided with, unfortunately, a grumpy baby who is working on another tooth, a husband with a migraine, laundry to do, and the biennial ant infestation in my kitchen.

Two years ago when the ants showed up, I thought it was due to my clumsy housekeeping skills, being a new homeowner with lots more to keep track of than I was used to. Then the issue made the six o'clock news. Turns out when conditions are just so (rainy spring after drought year), these little black creepies start invading people's homes. So it's not just me -- almost everybody who lives around here is dealing with the same problem.

They first reared their ugly heads on Saturday. We bought some ant bait ("Kills the queen!") and my husband helped me clean out the cupboard under the sink where we think the buggers are coming from and thoroughly scrub everything down with bleach. Then we set the traps and went about our business. The stuff is supposed to start working "in 24 hours!"

I should know better than to trust anything written by some marketing guru. I came down Sunday morning and killed a bunch of ants who must have chosen to ignore the traps. But then, it hadn't been 24 hours yet, so I thought I should give it a little more time. I was really only worried about it because I had a cake to bake -- Monday is my sponsor's birthday, and I wanted to send something nice over to her family. But working in an anty kitchen -- bleh!

After Mass, we were going to head out to the farm to see my husband's folks, but the poor man started coming down with a migraine. He took some medicine and tried to lie still while I got the gift, the children, and the dog ready to go. Then he huddled in the passenger seat, trying to block out the sun while I drove. He was a lot better by the time we got there (it's about an hour drive), and an hour after that he was back to normal. Good thing he took the meds early on -- it wasn't so bad this time.

We had a little lunch and gave Grandma the garden bell I'd helped the kids make -- decorated with butterfly wings made out of their footprints, and thumbprint bumblebees. We didn't stay long, but it was a nice visit. The dog ran around chasing pigeons and squirrels, and we all got some fresh air.

My husband and children gave me a sweet Mother's Day card and Michael Dubriel's book, Praying in the Presence of Our Lord with Fulton J. Sheen. It looks really good -- I can't wait to read it.

After dinner, the ant problem seemed to have diminished enough for me to work on the birthday cake, so I started on that. But the sobbing teething baby wanted to be held, and she wanted to be held only by me. So it was a juggling act between the mixer, my 3-yr-old's insistence on "helping," comforting the baby, comforting my husband as he tried to comfort the baby so I could work on the cake, and washing dishes as I went along so as not to attract more ants. Oh, and running down to the basement to tend to laundry every now and then.

Typical mom things, I guess. Just what a Mother's Day should be. :-)

--Sparki