Mother’s Day is always kind of a weird holiday for me. I will openly admit that I’m pretty selfish and really want the day to be all about me. And if the day really were about me and only me, there’s a list of things I’d probably want to do. Or a list of things I wouldn’t want to do! But, we have two grandmas that also deserved to be honored, and most of our Mother’s Day each year is split between their houses. Which is fine. But I wanted something more. Just for me. And if I had that thing for me, I’d be so much happier giving actual Mother’s Day to the other mothers in our lives!
So! A couple of years ago I started the tradition of making the Saturday before Mother’s Day MY special day. And not the kind of day where I sit at home and get served by my family. (Because, let’s be honest, that would never happen.) But a day where I’m allowed to be selfish, allowed to be indulgent, and not feel one speck of guilt over it. And this year because we’re celebrating a week early, yesterday was MY DAY.
I always start my Saturday before Mother’s Day at the farmer’s market. I love the farmer’s market so much!! I guess I should say I love the farmer’s market before 7:30am so much. Because after that the crowds get to be way too much and I can barely deal. But the early market is awesome! The weather is always cool, the customers are few, and the food and treats are abundant! The only problem with the spring markets is that they’re filled with flowers and plants. Which are gorgeous, but also very annoying to have to try and carry around. I usually end up mostly buying baked goods. Which taste amazing because I can’t find anything like that more locally. But it’s not exactly the best use of my dollars or calories!
It’s allowed on this particular day, though, because I have the excuse of needing to buy a Mother’s Day breakfast so nobody has to do any actual work. This year I bought us each morning buns from Stella’s. They’re SO GOOD. I also bought Potter’s rye crackers, which are super delicious. And I bought two kinds of spreadable cheese, which I forgot to put in the picture. And then because I heard there was a new donut shop nearby, I walked all the way down State Street to check out Dutch Baby. I’m not sure if it’s because they were a day old, but Greg and I didn’t like the donuts at all. Just in case you were wondering! Not worth the walk or drive. Get morning buns!
This year’s MY DAY was a little bit different because my sister-in-law Brittany was having a baby shower in the middle of it. So after the farmer’s market I went to Shopko to leisurely look around. It’s a weird store to enjoy meandering, but I always find some cute clothes or jewelry. I bought a replica of my favorite dress (the one I was wearing yesterday) in black. And found some cute earrings. I still had a little bit of time before I had to get to the shower to set up, so I stopped at a greenhouse I saw along the way. I bought my mom a hydrangea (her favorite) and some pretty coraly colored flowers for my pots. I just can’t stray from coral flowers! Love them so much.
The baby shower was at Brittany’s sister’s house. We all got there early to set things up. I was in charge of making the game prizes/gift bags. It was so much fun putting all the little gifts together.
The cake!
Lots of the food. So much yumminess.
It was a small, more intimate baby shower, but I think that made it more special. Everyone was so genuinely happy for Brittany and excited about the baby! We ate, talked, played a few games, ate and talked some more. It was really fun!
The present pile.
My cake piece. It had a chocolate mouse layer and a raspberry jam layer. Very good! The whole shower was really awesome. I’m so glad Timmy and Brittany moved back to Wisconsin and we get to share these days with them. I’m also extremely happy we’ll get to know and see our nephew on a regular basis!
After the baby shower, it was back to my day! I wanted to hit up Starbucks for their half priced frappucino happy hour. I thought about going to Target’s, but decided to head to Barnes and Noble instead. I tried out their new Midnight Mint Mocha frappucino – but cream based instead of coffee. It was good, but I still prefer the double chocolate chip one. But it was pretty great getting a venti size for $2.50!
Barnes and Noble is one of my favorite places to go when I just want to escape. I LOVE just reading all the book blurbs and making lists of the books I want to read. I almost never buy anything (amazon prices, anyone?), but this time I had to. I started thinking about how fun it would be to collect some of the books that I love so much I’d read again. That list is few and far between, so I think it might be worth it. Especially when they have awesome looking covers!! Carry On was seriously one of the greatest books I’ve read in recent years. If you’re a Harry Potter fan – read it. For real.
Next stop, Ulta! Mostly because I’ve been on a mission the last two weeks trying to find a perfect lipstick gift to give my mom for Mother’s Day. I love that Ulta and Amazon have such great return policies because I really made use of them this week! It’s just so hard to tell what’s going to work. Anyway, I think I found some good buys this time around. If not for her, then for me!
Immediately trying on a new lipstick. This is Too Faced La Creme in Honey Bear. I really liked it! We’re both pretty big Lipstick Queen fans, but Madison Ultas don’t carry it. Hence all the online returns I did this week! But Too Faced makes a pretty good lipstick too, I’ve learned!
After Ulta I headed to World Market and Marshall’s because I can’t be near Middleton and not go there. It’s a rule. I didn’t find much, but it was fun. At that point it was around 6:30 and I was tired. I woke up around 4. Went to bed too late. Typical day for me lately. I wanted to go out to eat because it was my day, but I didn’t want to go to a sit down place alone, or go to a fast food place just to eat something. So I ended up back at Mod Pizza in Fitchburg. I got the exact same pizza as I did last month, but I didn’t like it as much.
Anyway, that was my day! I got home, spent a few minutes with the boys as they were going to bed, cleaned up all my stuff from the day, and finished the night watching the Superstore season finale. It was a really good day! It was so worth it just to get out of the house and not have to worry about anybody or feel guilty for how long I was staying out. Nobody had any expectations for me. I didn’t even think about Annie for most of the day! After six weeks of her being a massive part of my brain space, I really needed that day off. So many thanks to Greg for being an awesome husband and letting me have this little tradition. It makes me a much happier mom!
