In past cyber-meanderings, I've mentioned that my family has adopted this odd little idea of each person having his or her own "season." For example, our second son, Taylor, celebrates his birthday in September, so "The Season of Taylor" runs from the day after his older brother's birthday in August until Taylor's own birthday in September. Then, "The Season of Harry" begins until October...followed by "The Season of Samantha." The oldest child, Alexander, has his "Season" from my birthday in June until his in August. However, the longest "Season" of them all belongs to my wife, Jessica. Hers begins on December 15, the day after Samantha's birthday and runs through Jessica's own February birthday, but, does it end there? NOOOOO! It continues through Valentine's Day. Is that the end? NOOOOO! It dovetails right into Mother's Day. My wife has a five month season! Most of us get a month...or two, at the most. She gets FIVE! FIVE months of gifts. FIVE months of saying "Don't forget, it's the season of Jessica" when making a "request."

Well, yesterday, being Mother's Day, marked the end of this year's season. For starters, we went to a different church than usual. A friend of ours from our home church is now a pastor at a new church so we thought it would be nice to see him in action. He made an interesting entrance. As we were standing in the narthex, he approached, resembling some sort of sacred janitor, carrying a wet/dry-shopvac. Apparently some water was seeping into the sanctuary from below...giving new meaning to the phrase "living water." There was some fine print in his letter of call that indicated this type of thing would be necessary. It was under "duties, other than baptism and feet-washing, involving water." Well, he did a wonderful job in his part of the actual service and the sermon, given by the senior pastor, had perfect pitch for Mother's Day.

Then we went to a brunch. Lots of good food. The youngest, Harrison, definitely got his money's worth. He had at least nine slices of pizza and a pile of desserts. Breakfast of Champions. In the afternoon, Mom opened presents...a personalized coffee mug...a candle...some books...an oven mitt. It was a good, quiet, restful day.

She certainly deserved it, especially after her Friday. She and a neighbor went in on a mulch delivery. When I got home on Friday, it looked like a giant cow had left a gigantic squishy calling card on the drive-way. Naturally, at first, I thought it was some sort of critique of my weather forecasting abilities. Turned out to be a mountain of mulch. Well, Jessica and the kids, with a lot of help from our neighbors, got it all spread around. When it comes to "spreading it around" I have a lot of experience, but I had a work-related deal to attend. Anyway, they all did a great job and got it down quickly. So, when Mother's Day rolled around, Jessica took a good rest...right before the End Of The Season of Jessica Parade that happens every May!

Here's hoping all your celebrations were great. Really, for Moms...the Season should be endless!