This Mother's Day, Say It With Pork

This was a very strange morning. Jack was up at 5:15, and didn't go back to sleep until 7 a.m. Charlie was pounding on the downstairs door at 6:20 a.m., as usual, so A. got up with him. I went back to sleep when Jack did at 7--in celebration of Mother's Day and my opportunity to lounge in bed--and when I got up at 8, Cubby was still asleep.

Cubby didn't wake up until almost 9 a.m., and I heard him thumping around upstairs before he appeared downstairs. He informed me I should go upstairs to look at his bed, because I would be very surprised.

He had made his bed, with no prompting or suggestion ever that he should be making his bed in the morning. Bed-making has never been a huge concern for me, so I haven't really been showing them how or insisting they do it. But I guess he just saw me making mine and decided to do it too.

So that was a nice Mother's Day present.

And then A. made crepes for breakfast, which is always appreciated.

But most exciting, we have a pig in the freezer.

The MiL decided--for what reason, I am not sure--that she wanted to start raising heritage Large Black Hogs with her brother the farmer. So she's been supplying the funds and the feed and so on, and he's been taking care of them on the farm. The first of the piglets were born this past winter and just got to slaughter weight. Our pig was butchered last week and was ready to pick up yesterday.

The slaughterhouse called at 9 a.m. yesterday to let us know we could come get our meat, and A. was in the car half an hour later to go pick it up.

I am really, really sick of buying meat a little at a time. I was definitely ready to have a whole freezer full again.

And now we do. A couple hundred pounds of literally the best pork I have ever eaten is now at hand. Hooray.

As for celebrating Mother's Day in any traditional way . . . well, no. Jack is too small for me to leave him for more than a couple of hours--due to the fact that I'm his sole source of sustenance--so I won't be going anywhere. I did mentally refuse to do laundry today, which means I dressed Charlie in dirty clothes from the basket in the downstairs bathroom.

Whatever. They just get dirty within the hour anyway. I should do this every day.

A. might take the older two fishing. I might go into the village to get some ice cream or something by myself later. But that's pretty much it for us.

And in closing, let me just wish the happiest Mother's Day to my own amazing mother, who I wish was close enough to come over for some pork chops today. Oh well. Arizona to New York is a little far to travel for pork, even if it is heritage. So I'll just raise my own pork chop in a salute to you, Mom.

And isn't that just a fitting Mother's Day salute from your weird countrified daughter? Yup. But heartfelt, nonetheless.