Mother's Day

I know with a title like that, I should be reflecting on motherhood, but instead I've found myself reflecting more on my marriage, just because of how my husband 'does' Mother's Day.

Some days I don't know if I'm just plain spoiled by Shawn, or if he just "gets it."  I'm thinking most likely, BOTH.  

Is it my husband?  Is it me?  Is it us together as a couple?

Would he be this wonderful to a woman who isn't me?

Is it years of me, him and us not getting it right, and finally figuring it out?

Is it just because we've both been hurt so much by life, and by others, that we can truly appreciate each other?

These are the sorts of things I ponder.

See, I don't remember my father playing outside, or really, anywhere, with me.  Even when he was home, he wasn't there, if you understand my meaning.  I don't remember my parents being loving toward each other--even as a child, it looked forced to me.  My father was always doing something wrong, or just wasn't doing things right (according to my mother, and the general vibe in our house).  Shawn doesn't remember his father playing with him either, and domestic violence was an issue in his house growing up.  Neither of us grew up with good models for marriage, or even parenthood.

"They" say that most girls marry a man who is exactly like her father.  For the record, I did not.  I did a complete 180.  And everyday I'm grateful I did.  Everyday I'm glad I married not just the opposite of my father, but Shawn.  "They" also say you can tell how a man will treat his wife by how he treats his mom.  And you know what?  Shawn treated his mom like a queen.

This year will be our thirteenth wedding anniversary.  Have we always been this way?  Oh, absolutely not!  It's taken us years to get here, and I know we still have further to go, more work to do.  But we're headed there.  Shawn appreciates me, loves me, cares for me, cherishes me--and he doesn't tell me, he shows me.  As one of my best friends constantly reminds me, I'm a regular princess, and Shawn treats me as such.  The poor guy canNOT say no to me.  If I want something, he will beg me to not use my womanly wiles in my favor ("womanly wiles"--ha!  All I ever really have to do is say "Please?").  It takes work to get to the point we're finally at, and more work to get to where we're going.

I spent this Mother's Day camping with Noah, some of his fellow Scouts, and their moms--a Mother's Day mother/son campout!  Sigh. I really didn't want to go, and quite truthfully, it did not start out well.  I did not want to disappoint Noah, and I knew I would be missing out on a very good moment with Noah. And as it progressed though, things went very well.  I'm very proud of how mature and independent Noah was throughout the weekend.  We hiked, we played wiffleball (moms won!), slept in tents (because those were actually more preferable than the cabins--ick!), pottied in disgusting bathrooms (which were actually better than the ones up the road near the cabins!), survived the boys' cooking, managed to fall asleep even though there were incredibly loud frogs (and boys), and made it through the weekend without showering.  And you know what else?  WE HAD FUN.

So, how did I go from my husband is great to a Mother's Day campout and back to my husband is great?  Oh man, if you could only see inside my brain....  HA!  Well....

Remember I said Shawn knows how to treat a woman?  This is how he showed up at the campsite to pick up the Scout trailer:

Yes, he arrived with flowers, and Starbucks coffee for all the moms.  Ohhh, he's good!  He and Avery also had a hand-painted "#1 Mom" t-shirt for me.  Once we got home, it was "Mom's Choice" for the rest of the day.  We played with the kids in the backyard, he cleaned the house for me, we had lunch at Denny's, and ice cream for dinner.  

I don't have the answers to the questions above, but I do know that I've got a winner.  Mother's Day was a treat for me, and it always has been.  My husband knows how to treat me--a woman--and it's not just on Mother's Day.  He knows how to treat me as his wife, and the mother of his children, every day of the year (okay, just so he doesn't sound 100% golden, we do have our arguments!).