Ah Mother’s Day.  A day when all moms get to relax – right?  This year, Mother’s Day occurred 6 days after Joel had arm surgery.  He planned that well, didn’t he?

Anyway, knowing I would be on the hook for doing everything on Mother’s Day, I set my expectations realistically.  All I wanted to do, was to sleep in – past 6:00 am, which is when Nicholas’s internal clock goes off.  AND Joel came through for me.  I actually stayed in bed until 7am.  By the time I got downstairs, waffles were made, boys were eating, and all was peaceful and calm.  At least I think that is how it happened.  The boys gave me fantastic broaches made in preschool and lovely picture they drew with Malina.

Joel and boys made these fantastic stepping stones for my northwest garden using pictures of us.

They are very cool.  In the end, I got to relax for an hour before it was time to do the dishes, run the laundry, referee the boys, and prep our burger inspired feast for my mom, dad & brother, whom we had invited over for Mother’s day.

This brings us to the excitement of the day.  We almost blew up our grill.  About an hour before my family showed up, Joel and I remembered we forgot to check to see if the grill was clean.  You see, in my mind, my husband is suppose to run the grill.  That is what my dad did.  Joel is not a big fan of meat so grilling becomes my job, unless I have another Aussie au pair, in which case I would hand over the grilling to her.  That said, I don’t know much about how to grill.  When Laura (Aussie) was our au pair, she showed me how to clean a grill with beer.  I have to say, it works great.  No one ever mentioned cleaning out the grease trap.  (a little foreshadowing here)  Anyway, I could have sworn I cleaned it before we stowed it away for the winter.  Nope – that was not the case.  I have never seen so much mold in my life.  It looked like my (Joel’s) grill had grown hair.  Yes – very disgusting.

What comes next is what Paul Harvey would call “the rest of the story”.  I told Joel to light it up.  We’d burn off that mold.  It was all going very well.  Clouds of white smoke filled the air.  No one died which proves it wasn’t toxic mold.  I’m at the kitchen sink washing fruit for a fruit salad when all of a sudden I notice the white smoke has gone black.  That’s funny – I think to myself.  Then I take a closer look.  The bottom of the grill is on fire.  That doesn’t look good.  I yell for Joel.  He’s talking to his mom on the phone.  He steps outside to look.  He abruptly hangs up on his mom – telling her the grill is on fire.  He wonders aloud at what he should use to put it out.  He didn’t want to use our fire extinguisher.  Beer comes to mind.  I tell Joel “put it out with beer.  It’s worked for me.”  He goes to get a beer (sorry Don, it was the last MGD – but it was for a good cause).  What I didn’t think of at the time, and I’m not sure if this thought crossed Joel’s mind either, is that there was a full propane tank right next to the fire.  There was a 1/2 tank under the fire.  Joel turned this off promptly but we did let the fire go a little longer than it should (slight temporal incongruity in Katie’s recollection – I shut off the gas before making the beer run – wouldn’t want Loren to think I was *that* stupid).  The grill and thus propane tanks are right near the house.  We were very lucky that day in that the beer worked beautifully at putting out the fire and that nothing exploded.

Needless to say, the bottom of our grill is completely warped now and needs to be banged out if it is to be worked again.  I know to clean the grill trap.  And, beer put out a grease fire.

That was my explosive Mother’s Day.  The rest of the day went well.  Burgers were grilled inside.  Bellies were filled.  People had a good time and I was a busy mother.  Joel can’t wait for the day he can outsource Mother’s Day.

I hope all you moms out there had a very happy day too with a little less danger than we had.  Please feel free to share your best mom’s day story with us.