Salvation’s House is officially throwing our hat into the Mother’s Day Blog ring. It’s this Sunday, and there’s safety in numbers. If anyone knows how many Mother’s Day blogs are posted this week, we’d love to hear about it.
My mother, fortunately, is still alive, as are Tim’s, Dean’s and Gerry’s mothers. I have to be honest, I’m the world’s worst shopper. Birthdays, Christmas, Flag Day…I stink at it. So you can imagine the terror that comes with this upcoming holiday. Not only do I honor the woman who gave life to me (and could take it away as soon as I stepped out of line, as she often reminded me), but also the woman who helped me raise my kids. DOUBLE JEOPARDY! I thought there was a law against that.
Hats make everything better
I was going to surprise my semi-bedridden wife with a deep house clean. Not anything I’d do, of course. I was going to hire someone for that. That must make it more special. That’s my argument anyway. But my wife let me know that she pre-emptively called the woman I was going to use, and asked how much it would be. So my wife and I had a conversation via text that went like this:
T: “This was C.P.’s response to re: a clean…If I had to guess I would say at least a couple hundred if not more. Deep cleans are not cheap as you know. It’s very time consuming. I just figured I would give you an idea $$-wise then you can decide if its going to be close to what you figured. Let me know if you would still like me to take a look.” P: “That’ll be your Mother’s Day present. I didn’t mean for you to call her. I was going to. Let her give an estimate. My guess is that it’ll be worth it to you in saved stress alone.” T: “I texted her. I don’t know if I want to spend that much though.” P: “I do. You can relax, it’ll be clean clean, not just tidy.” T: “I know! There are a few things I would like to do/have done before it happens. Move some things to allow for a more thorough clean!” P: “Don’t they move it?” T: “Not everything!”
Need I say more?
So many things happened right there in a few short texts. First, the surprise and clearly the romance was taken right out of it by my wife making the call. Second, any guy will tell you the more you discuss anything, the less fun it gets. Third, you can see that she handles the books in the family. She does a great job, she really does, and she’s telling me that she will weigh in on what the cost of her present is whether I want her to or not. Fourth, I have at some point in my life turned into a pretty relaxed guy about things. I like to see how things turn out, and prefer to see what will happen in situations like this. Finally, once she’s realized that it’s going to happen, she seems to want to still make me work for it by moving furniture.
Verily I say unto thee, Mother’s Day gifts are not special unless they come with some amount of sweat or sore muscles. The thinking is that Father’s Day is coming, and we’ll just add that day to the other 363 days she does everything.
So my wife will have the house cleaned for Mother’s Day. I am still up in the air about my mother’s gift, and my mother-in-law’s gift as well, but I’m sure my wife will think of something.
Happy Mother’s Day, moms of the world! We thank you for giving us everything you have and more still. And honey, I hope you take this post the right way, which would be with humor and grace. I love you.
God bless the mothers of the world
