au revoir weekend!

Our weekend started Friday night with me dreaming of coffee and donuts at my favorite new spot The Donut Cooperative over in S Minneapolis. Royce humored me Friday night and agreed to check it out as early as we all woke up the next morning! I was so determined to eat donuts that I woke up at 6:30 and woke everyone else up at 7 am to head out the door :) The girls were excited and we had a wonderful sweet breakfast in that funky sweet little cafe tucked inside of one of my favorite neighborhoods in Minneapolis. Royce liked the lemon poppyseed donut the best (it was excellent) and my favorite was the almond joy donut....I need another one soon. The girls sampled several but like usual pretty much just licked the frosting off the top and left everything else. All of us ran around all morning and by Saturday afternoon anxiously awaited one of my bff's arrival for her birthday party (girls were excited about cake, Royce excited to hang with Amy's boyfriend, a pro skater). I brought Rasa with me to pick up the cake and she ran beside me holding the ice cream in the store squealing with every step :) We had a great time. Later a couple of old friends came over to hang out by the fire.

Sunday morning all of us woke up early again, decided to drive until we found a little cafe for coffee and ended up eating at a little diner in Edina. It was actually very good! After, we went to bachman's to pick up some annuals (Royce's gift to me for Mother's Day) to plant in the side planter and we enjoyed the beautiful hot sun all day and all evening long. I had a beautiful Mother's Day. Royce was sweet, took care of everything and my favorite moment was before I hopped out of bed in the morning when Royce marched the girls into our room with their mother's day cards in their hands saying in the sweetest little munchkin voices, "Happy Mother's Day, Momma". Melt my heart!!!

It will be good to hop into our weekday rhythm but it was a beautiful and fantastic weekend. My little family spent all of our time outside, playing, walking, running around, biking, sitting in the sun and the girls in the sprinkler, dancing and listening to music, eating great food (even watermelon)!

Royce and I tucked the girls in early tonight, before it even got totally dark out because they've been running ragged all weekend. After we put them to bed Adia started asking for hardboiled eggs. I had a dozen fresh eggs in the fridge so I said yes, what the heck I'll make you some and bring them in when they're ready. After the timer went off the girls were still awake excited to eat eggs (simple pleasures!) so I was cooling and peeling them as fast as I could. As I was standing in the kitchen, it was finally black dark outside and I paused for a second to breath in the summer smelling warm air blowing through the windows and I felt excited and happy. Excited that we're finally feeling at home here and happy that this is where we are.

to define exceptional

I was looking at my dishpan hands today after scrubbing down the house this afternoon. My weekly sanity. I love working hard and getting tired and seeing the accomplishment of a spotless house packed full of clean dishes and clean laundry. As silly as it may sound it fulfills something in me I lost when I stopped working outside the home. Mothering is so fly by the seat of your pants! You have little control most of the time! You never know what's going to fly up and slap you upside the head! Homemaking is nitty gritty but organized and controlled! Plus you can make it what you want. I was putting clean sheets on the bed and decided my favorite of all holiday's is Mother's Day. What sweet and momentous day to celebrate everything that means Mother. I can say with certainty that being a Mother has transformed me in a way nothing in my life ever has or ever will. Never have I felt so blessed and thankful for being a woman. There's SO much connected with being a Mom. It's a celebration of carrying a baby (or babies!), nurturing physically and emotionally, going from a regular girl to a hero the second your baby takes her first breath. I will never tire of it and never take it for granted, EVER.

It's no secret my Mom and I are very close. She's always been my hero. She was a patient and wonderful Mother. She was nurturing to the extreme. She has always been so connected to me. She listened to me when I had the words to put to how I was feeling and when I didn't I could look at her with no words and see her eyes fill with understanding, compassion and undying love. I have hundreds upon hundreds of memories of her while I was growing up and she was this quiet powerful presence of esteem, praise and pride in me. I couldn't fail in her eyes. I couldn't disappoint. She followed my dreams and has always been behind me, giving me support and telling me how amazing I am. I am so undeserving of this kind of love yet appreciate so much how it has molded me into the woman that I am. Truth be told when I'm sick, or sad or upset nothing makes me feel good as quickly as Momma!

So to define exceptional is to define my Mom, who she was, who she is and what she will continue to be; the most important and influential woman in my life.

Happy Mother's Day to you Mom! I admire you and I'm so extremely proud of you, what you've done and who you are. I love you with all of my heart. I'm missing you this weekend and wish you were in town to celebrate with me!