Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day I had fairly low expectations. Andy had to leave town early in the day, and I was in charge of peeling about a million potatoes for the family dinner we were having for my mom (she is completely against any of her daughters being involved in the preparations since it should be our day too, but that's an entirely different story).

So after going to afternoon church with my mom, getting my husband out the door and my kids down for naps, I was running behind. I peeled fast, but they still weren't cooked by the time I was supposed to be at my parents' house. I left the pot boiling while I ran to get Autumn up from her nap. I changed her diaper and got her dressed, and ran back to the kitchen to find 12 inch flames coming from the counter. I had left the oven mitt too close to the gas burner, and it had ignited at some point while I was out of the room. I grabbed a towel and stamped out the flames, throwing the towel and the mitt into the sink and dousing them with water. I got everything ready and loaded in the car, and just as I was heading out, I checked the sink. The towel was good, but the mitt was still smoldering, so I threw it into a metal colander in the sink and ran out the door.

I lingered longer than usual since I had nothing really to come home to, so by the time I got home, this is what was left of the oven mitt:

It's hard to tell, but the mitt had been a big puffy one that my sister gave me for Christmas, and all that was left of it was about two square inches and some ashes. It had smoldered the whole time I was gone, and the house was full of smoke. I opened all of the windows and turned on all of the fans, but by the time I went to put the kids in bed, they were coughing and my throat was raw. I called my mom and we ended up staying the night at her house because I was worried about smoke inhalation.

I came back the next morning without the kids and opened all of the windows again. I let them air out for about an hour, but then when I went to close them, two of the bedrooms were soaking wet from the rain that had blown in. I'm feeling fairly brilliant after all of the drama.

On the up side, Calvin's preschool teacher brought me this:

Cutest card ever, and a vase made with colored salt glued to the side. She said the mother's day flowers didn't keep while I was out of town, but I told her that the branch with blossoms was much more my style anyway. Calvin felt the need to cover his face for some reason.

Not the best day ever, but I'm incredibly grateful to be a mother and for all of the great women I know who are making a difference in the world. I am also blessed to have an amazing mother, and a wonderful mother-in-law. Happy Mother's Day!