The Fish Pond: Trout's Plan

Trout had a plan. Some day last week, unbeknownst to me, she slipped a note into what we affectionately call my husband's "purse," which is just basically an old lunchbox from a previous employer in which he carries all his junk. Sometime at work, my husband found this:

Dear daddy,
I want to give mom some thing super special, but I need your help. try to convince mom to let you take me out Saterday afternoon and arrive after 7:00pm. I'll explain in the car.
Trout

We've been really busy for the past couple of weeks, including this past weekend, and it didn't help that I somehow hurt my back - I was fine when I went to bed on Friday night, but I woke up Saturday morning in excruciating pain. BigDaddyFish said the muscle was swollen, so I somehow did something to it, but I still have no idea what it was, though now I have bruises in the same spot that had been swollen. Anyway, because of all this, they didn't get to go out on Saturday, though Trout kept trying to talk to BDF about it without giving herself away. She has the subtlety of mack truck, though, so I knew she was up to something, but I didn't know what.

Sunday I got a bee in my bonnet and decided to make homemade bread (our preferred type of bread is up to $3.19/loaf, and that's just insane, when I can make bread for a lot, lot less), so she helped me get it mixed and kneaded and rising, and then both girls and BDF went out "for an hourish." An hour later BDF texted me to ask if I needed anything from Target. Two hours later, he texted to ask if they should eat dinner out (!). I made him come home. They were gone for about 2.5 hours total. In that time the bread rose once, I punched it down and shaped it into loaves, it rose again, and then I baked it. And made dinner.

It was a kinda late night, because on Sunday night we bathe everyone instead of just one or two kids, to get them ready for the week. Trout gathered everyone in my bedroom just before shower/bath time, and she presented me with her gift - a pair of tiny gold and blue gemstone earrings on which she spent half her life savings. As I posted on my Facebook status, I am SO not worthy.

I thanked her then and I will say it again here, thank you my dear, sweet Trout. You didn't have to do this. I would have been happy with a drawing and a hug, but this is lovely.

Not the most in-focus picture, but I don't have a macro setting on my camera.

I'm afraid her plan ended up making her siblings feel lesser about their gifts - Little Man's being a flower made out of construction paper where the leaves open to reveal the bloom and a filled in page where he wrote something about me that spelled out MOTHER, both of which he made at school, and Sunny's being a hand-made card and a cup of money, literally. She used a measuring cup and gave me a cup filled with coins from her piggy bank, with explicit orders that "You'd better spend that money, Mama." I started to count it out, but after counting just the quarters I was up to $16.50, so just in case you were wondering how much is in a cup of mixed coins, my guess is about $23, give or take a buck or so. I held them both tight and reassured them that I loved, LOVED all of my gifts, because they came from the heart of the child who presented them. It didn't matter what they were.

Each of the kids' gifts is wonderful because they each show so much of their personalities: Trout with the stealthy, grandiose plan that required a fair amount of self-sacrifice on her part; Little Man with the more quiet handmade gesture filled with love; and Sunny's spunky, drill-sargeantesque instructions. Nemo, for his part, stayed dry all day (did I tell you we are potty training? No? well, we are, sorta, because I don't really potty train, he does it on his own, but he's doing great) and gave me great snuggles and didn't make me watch the movie Cars, which we usually watch every day.

All in all, the best Mother's Day I've ever had, back injury notwithstanding.