Mother's Day treats

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." - Lin Yutang

In the past, I have worked under high pressure of the kitchen for a major week-long event, served crowds during peak lunch periods in the food court of a shopping mall, helped hordes of students as an IT helpdesk support role at my university, rushed to meet project deadlines as an engineer, and taught large classes of unmotivated high school students as an English teacher in Japan, but the most exhausting job of all is being a mother. Motherhood is also the most rewarding, and I love it the most of all the jobs I've had. As most of you should have known, it was Mother's Day last Sunday. The 3.5-year-old understandably had no idea of the day's significance, but my husband - bless him for trying - did his best to make it a special day for me.

A handmade card was presented to me as soon as hubby got out of bed, joint effort of both father and son:

It's a known and accepted fact that while I am an early bird, hubby is a night owl who loves sleeping in on weekends. Breakfast-in-bed-for-mum is not only impractical in this family, it would also be undesired because breakfast is the only meal I can keep relatively healthy on weekends. Instead hubby cooked up some delicious scrambled eggs on toast for brunch, and we headed to Haagen-Dazs in the mall downstairs for ice-cream afterwards (I was glad for the healthy breakfast).

Haagen-Dazs' Lost in Manhattan - smooth Belgian Chocolate ice cream, Cookies & Chocolate ice cream (substituted by request in place of plain Chocolate) and Cookies & Cream ice cream on top of a warm brownie cake. It was pretty, and we liked Cookies & Chocolate flavour more than the Cookies & Cream ice cream:

Then hubby looked after the boy for the rest of the day while I got stuff done child-free - something he does most weekends anyway, but I assured him that it's the everyday acts and efforts that really matter to me, not the once-off deeds done only on odd occasions. "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother" (Rev. Theodore Hesburgh), and my husband is doing a fine job.