special moments

it's been a lovely day. i'm not particularly a fan of mother's day, particularly not the commercialisation of it. and i wouldn't mind ignoring it altogether. but as i wrote last year:

i see that my girls want the opportunity to show me that they think i'm special and important, and it's hard to create those opportunities every day.

so we started this morning with a walk around the lake in hamilton with a group of muslim women. i've actually been doing that for the last five weeks, and it's been a lot of fun. a great chance to get out and catch up with friends while doing something healthy. we started out in bright sunshine, but it started raining about half way, so we ended up being a bit soggy by the end.

then it was off to baker's delight, which is something i hardly ever do, but i couldn't resist a request from the girls. so we bought lots of fresh baking and went over to the grandparents' house to have breakfast together. which was also lovely.

the afternoon was filled with a shama board meeting and the weekly religious class my girls attend, and when we got home i was presented with a beautiful home-made card and a "mamma mia" dvd. we'd all seen the film at the theatre when it came out & watched it again on dvd during our holiday up north. but i can't seem to get tired of this film.

so we snuggled up in bed, put the dvd on the laptop and watched it again, and cried and laughed again, and it was sweet. the card is next to me now, cut out in a heart shape, and with a drawing of us swimming at the beach inside. and a "thank you for all the fun things we did this year" with a list of what they were. that's one thing i'm so glad about, that i took the time this year to create some special memories for all of us. i always wanted my kids' childhood memories to be a comfort and a source of strength for them, because i know a lot of children don't have that.

i remember reading in a book (don't know which one) this line: "it's for moments like these that we live all the others". and today has been one of those moments. a very happy mother's day.