The day began, as it does every day lately, with a little boy standing next to the bed at 6am saying “nice sleeps?” and wanting to crawl in next to us. But being that it was Mother’s Day and I specifically asked to sleep in for “my day”, N.C. took the kid upstairs to watch TV while I grabbed another couple of hours of sleep. Note to younger me: someday 8:30 am will be considered sleeping in.

For “brunch”, I had a typical weekend breakfast of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns & diet coke while watching Despicable Me with my family. No one threw a tantrum the entire time, and Despicable Me is actually pretty cute. Note to younger me: Someday you’ll watch cartoons a million times and beg for something you haven’t seen, even if you previously loved it.

They went and got some milk at some point too. Jackson valiantly fought this gallon of milk for 5 minutes.

While Jackson napped, I watched 127 Hours (it was good. I probably shouldn’t have watched it on Mother’s Day, but it was good), and when the movie was over, I took a leisurely 45 minutes to shower and get dressed. Note to younger me: enjoy those 45 minute showers. Someday they will be a luxury.

For a late lunch, I decided to try my luck by requesting sushi & ice cream. Despite a couple of ants-in-the-pants moments, Jackson did a great job of behaving at the practically empty restaurant (sushi restaurant at 3:30 is apparently not the happening place on Mother’s Day. Who knew?). We didn’t even have to inhale our food, instead taking our time eating. And then we all got ice cream. Note to younger me: enjoy those lazy, drawn out meals. Someday you’ll be lucky if you get 20 minutes for your dinner.

Everyone needed to burn off some energy, so we went with the dog and the kid to an open field, where they ran around for about an hour, chasing birds (the dog), tennis balls (the kid), and generally being wild (everyone). We left covered in dirt & burrs, but with a solidly worn out crew. Note to younger me: any ideas you may have had about adulthood being cleaner & fancier than childhood? Yeah, not so much.

By the time we got home, it was meltdown central. I passed bath duty off on N.C. and mindlessly chopped stuff for our dinner (I find chopping to be therapeutically repetitive), but went down to do the nighttime ritual before long. Jackson was crazy tired, so we shortened everything up & before long it was time for “nigh nigh mommy.” With the lights off, the soft gray of a hazy twilight outside softened the room while I sang songs, asked Jackson to tell me about our day, rubbed his back & combed my fingers through his curls. Then it was “one more rockabye bayybeee mommy?,” and little arms around my neck, and “kisses make mommy HAPPY!,” and “I lub you mommy.” And I sat with a little boy in my lap, in that soft gray light, and smiled at how perfect a Mother’s Day it had been.

Note to younger me: This will someday be a perfect day. There won’t be gifts wrapped with a bow, or fancy celebrations, and you will think a day like this is the best gift ever.You have SO much to look forward to is what I’m saying.

Today, however you celebrate (or don’t), I hope you take a minute to yourself. I hope you take a deep breath, and exhale, and know one thing:

You are more than the extra labels that you may be painted with.

Take away the words working, stay-at-home, breastfeeding, formula feeding, attachment parenting, helicopter, free range, adoptive, crunchy, etc. etc. etc. etc.

Take away all those words, and the ONE label that is important is left.

Mom.

It’s the one word that ties so many of us, who are so different in so many other ways, together.

Mom.

And if you care about that label, if you are working in any way shape or form to live up to that label? No other label matters.

So celebrate yourself today, and all the other moms out there, no matter what their “extra” labels may be.

Life seems to be moving at breakneck speed lately, leaving me just trying to hold on until we’re out of this busy period. Which, sadly, leaves me little energy for blogging at the moment (I know, so sad). My brain just seems to crash out at the end of the day…

There’s a lot of great stuff coming up though. Today I’m taking the day off so N.C. and I can spend some time together to celebrate Mother’s Day (trying on the actual day hasn’t worked in my previous two attempts, so we’re trying it this way). I plan on eating my way up and down the coast, and trying to ignore any thoughts of work.

Then, in a few weeks, N.C. & I will celebrate our anniversary. We’re trying to find a little mini-vacation to go on for a day or two (made possible by my mom’s desire to come out and see us spend time with Jackson). It’ll be something small, within driving distance, but it’ll be nice to have even a little bit of time to celebrate.

Of course, the week after that is my annual trip to New York. It’s for BEA, THE tradeshow in the US for book publishing. This is part of why I’m so crazed at work, we’re trying to wrap up all the final planning that comes with trade shows. It all culminates in an 8 day trip to New York, something I both love and dread at the same time. Being that it’s a business trip, and a trade show at that, I’m gonna be exhausted a good portion of the time. And of course, I hate leaving the kid and the husband for so long (seriously, 8 days is way too long). BUT, the trade off for the hard work and distance is a little bit of down time in the city, a chance to catch up with old and new friends, and, of course, the opportunity to stuff my face. Yeah, I basically eat my way through the city.

That being said, if any of you are in New York, (or are going to be there for BEA, BlogWorld, or the Book Bloggers Convention), I’d love to meet up and say hi. Even if it’s just for drinks or a bagel!

After THAT? Well, after that, I think things should slow back down from breakneck busy to normal busy. Now let’s just hope I can keep up the pace until then!

This weekend has been pretty nice, despite a sick kiddo. N.C. had an amazing week of art stuff, we got some extra money in, AND a neighbor offered to babysit for us. You can BET we took her up on that one! And tonight is Game of Thrones and Mad Men, so there’s still good things to come.

What better way to extend a good time than by sharing some good links, eh? So let’s do it.

Over at Miss Britt, take a look at the 7 Habits of Happy People. I have to admit, I do some of these, and not others, but it’s a great reminder of things we can do to make ourselves happy.

Over at What She Said, A Parent’s Prayer for Potty Training in the Digital Age speaks of all the things I try and remember as my kid has been potty training. That I may never end up on STFUParents, Amen.

Over at DadCentric, BetaDad gives us Parenting Is Not a Job. Work yes. A job, no. (And that’s a good thing.)

Over at Native Born, Rooted. As someone who both loves books and has a family that maintains a wonderful history of who came before us, I really enjoyed this particular post. I may not remember everyone on the (many and varied) branches of my family tree, but I love knowing what family history I do, and I love knowing that there’s more there to absorb.

And finally, if you find politics ridiculous at times, you have to go watch this video, as it’s the funniest thing I’ve seen on the news in a LONG LONG time.

Have a great Sunday folks–enjoy!

**How to put myself first

**How to stop saying yes when I mean no

**How to start saying yes even when I feel like I shouldn’t

**How to be patient and wait for the right things instead of jumping on the easy things

**How to be selfish occasionally

**How to be in the moment

**How to let myself off the hook

**How to put my needs ahead of my shoulds

…Or, I’m trying anyway.