When I stopped at my mom’s place on Monday, I knew she was going to tell me everything that was wrong the day before, and I braced myself for a half-hour torture. Fortunately, it turned out not to be “everything bad,” but just the resentment that we didn’t talk solemnly about both Anna and me (and I’d say, she is probably the major reason why we didn’t talk about us :)). Nothing is new; unfortunately, the (formal) words mean to her more than anything else, so I expected that reaction.
As for me, it was probably the best Mother’s Day I’ve had! We started Saturday with the CSO Family matinee,
Then we went to the Buckingham fountain to “Switch on Summer.” For several years, I wanted the girls to have this experience, and finally, Kira had a chance to be there (Nadia was busy with her extracurriculars, and she and John arrived later on Saturday).
Kira was really helpful all the time, not just “I want to help!” but actually helping to set up the table, clean up, and just “keeping me company” when I was doing things in the kitchen. The latter one seriously felt great. I always lament that this apartment isn’t designed for cooking as a family activity: the kitchen is separated from the rest of the apartment, and when I am cooking, I am cutting off all personal interactions. It’s nice when someone keeps you company!
Later, Anna helped me to fasten all loose screws in my flower baskets, and we installed them on the balcony railing, and then she went to visit my mom, for which I can’t thank her enough.
I was hoping that we would be able to squeeze in some biking, and it turned out that Anna had similar ideas, and even more, she was ready to go early in the morning, so that we could see sunrise over the lake. And she actually woke up at five, and we went together and had an amazing time. We went further away than we originally planned, and I started to worry that the girls would resume their previous day’s fighting while we were away, but fortunately, only Kira was up, so she didn’t have anybody to fight with š
Anna ordered food from the Honeybear Cafe, picked it up, then picked up my mom, and we all sat for our late breakfast/brunch; Igor joined us a little bit later.
I also put out the Mother’s Day pastry boxes from Vanille.
I was glad that Igor, Anna, and I had a rare opportunity to sit together and talk about things we were all interested in without major interruptions :).
And finally, we all went to the Windy City Garden Center to pick up flowers for my balcony. That’s one of the few things I can’t manage with Uber, so picking up flowers was a great Mother’s Day present. I thought that after they leave, I would start planting, and I was wondering how long it would take, but the girls offered to help, and they were seriously helpful; to my surprise, we were done in less than an hour!
I will definitely need to buy some extra plants, because it’s difficult to estimate precisely how many will be needed, but the bulk of the work is done!
Hettie's Reflections 