Happy Mother’s Day to you all! Moms all around the country today woke up to kids and husbands making them breakfast or having special meals and events planned to help to make you feel special. Mom’s everywhere have grinned through the cold cereal their kids call breakfast in bed and the overdone toast and eggs from her husband. Yes, this is stereotypical but we all know it has happened. Then there is the mom who had to do all the planning, all the shopping maybe because she doesn’t want to eat bad food or because she has spent so much time taking care of her family and is so seemless in how she runs it that the family forgets that it takes her effort to make everything work. Some of us may be sad that the family didn’t do more and some that are overwhelmed and feeling embarrassed that they did so much. Regardless moms, we have so much to fill our hearts with happiness.

Some moms left after their less than gourmet breakfast and got home to the same mess that was there when we first left, even though we may spent all day dreaming of a house cleaner being at our house deep cleaning and preparing dinner for us but we opened the front door only to realize the kids and husband’s efforts ended at breakfast and now it’s time to clean up that mess so we can make dinner because our mom is on her way for dinner! Don’t be sad mama, you kids and husband don’t know what they didn’t do, you take such good care of them you are ninja like with your mom skills. They don’t stand a chance! Your family loves you, don’t sit and get frustrated look at them and be thankful for all that you have done to let them be them! You build them up so much they want to do special things for you but they in themselves know there is no way to compare to you and they don’t want you to eat their own shitty cooking either. Just know mama, you are a rock star and you are doing it right!

Maybe you did wake up and didn’t have to lift a finger. You have naturals for your family. They know what you do, they notice. Maybe because you have prepped them well leading up to Mother’s Day because you remember last year when they had no clue. Maybe your family just knows what you like because they are instinctive! Maybe you are a control freak and micromanage everything and along the way they have picked it up and learned what you want and like. Either way, also should know you are doing it right!

If you had to make your own breakfast or eat burnt toast but got the perfect gift. Appreciate that! For some people service is not their thing. Some moms want the perfect gift and they tell their family what it is. Some husbands only know how to speak in the language of gifts and always hit a homerun with presents. Some people are just intuitive at getting the perfecdt gift and some people at good at asking for the perfect gift regardless if this is you, mama, You are doing it right!

Mother’s Day failures of amazingly underwhelming gifts and breakfast fails and dinners that mom has to make herself are part of the reality of Mother’s Day! Moms hold the world together. Sometimes when we give mom’s the day off we have sacrifices just as a CEO may have some sacrifices when they are not in every negotiation in their business, as a mom, we can manage the sacrifice. Most families want mom to be happy so mom’s lets let our families take care of us however they think we need! Relax, we can fix the misplaced dishes and the poorly folded clothes from today and clean up the rest of the mess during the week. Let’s relax, let our family feel good about how well they took care of us today. Whatever it is today it’s probably more than yesterday so let’s appreciate our family for it! Positive reinforcement will breed them wanting to do it more even if we have to wait until Mother’s Day 2018. (Small note if you are a little disappointed you really should communicate with your family what you want from them, they do not know if you do not tell them. COMMUNICATE)

My family ranges through all of these types. I have learned I like things a certain way and I have learned that I am good at organizing adventures so I planned out today bought tickets made reservations and purchase the meat for the Traeger. We had dirty dishes in the sink this morning so I asked my kids to do the dishes, before we left for our fun adventure filled day. The kids got to redeem old gift certificates (from 3 Christmas’s ago) for iFly (indoor skydiving) it was a blast to watch them have so much fun. (I wish I bought the Hubs and I flights it looked fun!) Then we did a Ride the Duck tour in Seattle, then stopped at the Museum of Flight. It was fun hanging with the family for the day. We came home for an amazing roast smoked on the Traeger by the Hubs. I had to go get the roast yesterday due to the fact that the Hubs was busy with baseball, helping with science homework and normal stuff! As much as I would have loved to have everything done for me, today was a better day because of the effort I put into it, I am proud of that! They surprised me with Sundaes for dessert! All in all for me it was a successful Mother’s Day. It’s not always about how much work you don’t have to do or what gift they get you it’s about the quality of time and day you had. We had a high quality day partly because of the work I had to do setting it up. My family noticed it, and said thank you to me for it! I loved today! I love adventuring with my family we have fun together. We get so busy with life that we forget how good we are together! Family: I LOVE YOU! I LOVE US!

#Family2017