Every Mother’s Day there is a little guesswork that goes into what to buy, or make for the women in your lives who do it all (or at least try.)  Some of us cannot multi-task as well as we used to.

So for Mother’s Day this year, I have decided to come out and ask for something I am hoping for.  There is not much involved and will hardly cost a penny.

I am merely looking for a little assistance with my garden. Not a lot of assistance, just the basics: time, weeding, planting, raking, and pruning the overgrowth.

After all, I have been nurturing my children for so long I have literally put aside my rock garden and well, it’s basically in shambles.  Now that the kids are in school with plenty of activities of their own, I feel it’s time to branch out and recreate my floral paradise.

Sometimes I kid around when I run into an old friend or acquaintance who comments on how big my children are getting: “Well you know kids, feed ‘em and water ‘em and they will grow!” 

Sure I earn a chuckle but ain’t that the truth. My plants, which I seem to forget to feed and water, don’t appear to be growing at all.

Certainly with this track record it was obvious I was unable to nurture two things at once, and thankfully I chose my children over my garden.

I always admire families who have more than three children.  Growing up with four children in my family, I am impressed that my mother never lost a single one of us.  I often say I am lucky I can find the two children I have, let alone imagine myself with multiple children.

Similar to my luck in locating my two children, it’s a crapshoot whether or not I can find the gardening tools in the shed come springtime. I usually end up buying new tools every season and during my hoeing, digging, and forcing worms into homelessness, I end up digging up a rusty set of tools that I had lost the previous year.

Certainly with this track record it was obvious I was unable to nurture two things at once, and thankfully I chose my children over my garden.

So this year as the celebration of mothers is upon us, I simply ask for everyone to lend a hand in turning over the soil of the modest, yet brilliantly colored place that has become the center of my universe (after my children), my garden.

I will be the happiest mother of the year.  I will be glad to put that next to my other title of the best mother of the year!