Flowers for Alger-Mom

You won't understand that title unless you had to read Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes in school like I had to. Good book. Interesting.

I am not a big flower person. I love them in a garden. But I am not a fan of someone thrusting a bouquet in my face and saying, "My bad," expecting instant forgiveness.

That scenario has never happened to me though. Because I told my husband a long time ago that it wouldn't work. I believe the phrase "Save your money" came up in that conversation.

In any case, I can count on one hand the times Bruce has given me flowers purchased from a florist. He chose times when the flowers meant something. Our first anniversary. The first day he went to work, leaving me alone in our new home, in a new town a state away from our families, after our first move once he finished college. And twice in the hospital following the births of our children.

I'm not complaining. Bruce knows me. He knows that I'd rather have a potted plant for Mother's Day or a birthday or anniversary. Something alive. Something without that cliche attached... forgiveness without remorse just because someone shelled money out.

Still, I am not a woman who does not receive fine flowers regularly.

I get the best kind. The kind picked by our children.



The kind that most people would call "weeds" but that I just call "love".

Today is Clay's birthday party. A slew of soon-to-be-third grade boys running around on a sugar high. Pray for us! Seriously, this is supposed to be a party largely held outdoors and the weather is supposed to be kind of iffy today.

I'll post pictures when I can. For now, feast your eyes on this baby.



We decided to do things a bit differently this birthday. A choice mainly made for fiscal reasons, but Clay was okay with it so we're running with it.

I usuallly order a cake from Food City every birthday, because they have THE BEST whipped cream icing. But I shell out over $30 each time. I thought we'd save a few bucks and get a giant birthday cookie instead. I went a step further and thought, "I'm going to try to make it myself. If I mess up, I'll run to the mall and pick up a new one last minute."

I think I did A-Okay!

And eating a handheld piece of cookie will be neater than eating cake. I'm all about less mess today.

I even bought the individual tubs of ice cream so I wouldn't have to take the time to scoop out ice cream. I'll burn a few nickels for the sake of ease.