Mother's Day Magic

I was doing dishes in the kitchen yesterday afternoon while the girls were playing outside.  We were having a challenging day, as many of them have been lately, and I was working it out on my dishes.  Anyone else do that? Anyway, Eliza came rushing into the room, "Mama, there's some lady outside and I think she's selling something, and anyway, she wants to talk to you."  Grmph. Not in the mood for whatever she's selling, spiritual or material. I stalk to the front door, drying my hands on a dishtowel and ready to send her packing (in a kind way, I'm not a total bonehead).  Well, there are a handful of ladies standing outside my door, and one of them is holding something wrapped in cellophane, and she stretches it out towards me and I've got "no thank you" just waiting to dive from my lips when she says, "We're just giving these out to moms in appreciation  of Mother's Day."  Silence.  I say something clumsy like "What?" So she kindly repeats herself, with a beautiful smile, but I can see she noticed the "no" hanging around my face, so I'm hoping she feels a little relieved when my face crumbles into a disbelieving smile and a watery "For real? Are you serious? This is for me? Cause I'm a mom?"  I wanted to cry right then and there I was so touched, and then I said the most old lady thing you can imagine, "Your mothers would be so proud of you!"

The dishtowel and the gift

The magical mother's day posse

Eliza had run inside to make a sign that simply said "I love you" - I think she noticed how moved I was (her weepy old mama), and my girls followed them down the street a ways until I called them back.    As we came back inside I looked at her, and said, "Eliza, you know how you're always asking me about magic in the world? Well, if that's not magical, what those ladies are doing, I don't know what is."