Mother’s Day Madness
“So, what are we going to give Mom for Mother’s Day?” asked Doug. “I don’t have much money.”
Kelly always thought ahead and saved up for things like birthdays and Mother’s Day. She already had a pretty ceramic figurine wrapped and hidden away. She was busy making a card with her stencils and markers. But she wanted to do more since, their mom was the greatest mom in the whole entire world, though two of her brothers didn’t always think so. Doug was one of them.
She was writing her sentiments on the card with purple marker as she said, “we could clean for her. She’d like that. Let’s vacuum and mop the floor.”
“I don’t like to clean,” said Doug. “We already do a lot of chores around the house. We have to clean our rooms, and do dishes, and take the trash out….”
“Well, I thought maybe we could do things she usually does—then she wouldn’t have to do them for once.”
Doug stuck up his nose at the whole idea of cleaning.
“We could cook Sunday lunch,” suggested Doug’s twin, Brent. The two didn’t look alike; actually they weren’t alike in personality either or—much of anything. Except that they could make up music and play the guitar. They often played and sang the songs they wrote.
Matt, the oldest, waved away the idea of cooking. “Then we’d have to clean up. Let’s just let Dad take us all out to a restaurant like he planned.”
Brent frowned. “I don’t think it’s about what we like to do. It’s about doing something that she’d like.”
“Sometimes being nice means sacrificing what we want,” put in Kelly.
“Oh, you two!” Doug gave a wave of disgust.
“No, they’re right,” said Matt. “But cleaning and cooking doesn’t really appeal to me either. Look, we’ve all got different talents and things we’re good at. Let’s think about what she really needs and what we’re each good at doing.”
Everybody thought this was a pretty good idea. Kelly still liked her idea of cleaning. She knew her mother would really like a break on all the household work, so she vacuumed the whole downstairs.
She was finishing up and putting the vacuum away in the closet, ready to flop on the couch, when suddenly—
“No!!!! Get away from there!”
Their four year old sister, who loved to draw, had climbed up on the kitchen stool and was scribbling all over her nice card.
Kelly grabbed the red marker.
“I’m drawing elephants,” stormed Tracy.
They were actually pretty good elephants for a four year old but….
“That was my card for Mom!” Kelly took it away, and Tracy promptly burst into angry screams.
As she turned to put her ruined card on the kitchen shelf, she suddenly noticed a white haze at the living room door. Suspiciously—and frantically—Kelly raced to the door! And there was two year old Dani with a can of baby powder, happily shaking it all over the blue couch. She had pretty much covered the whole room with a fine film of white.
Dani was usually cheerful and lots of fun, but she certainly could get into things!
“Stop!” Kelly clamped her mouth shut so she wouldn’t lose her temper. But she marched over and snatched the baby powder out of the little girl’s hand. “What do you think you’re doing!”
“It’s snowing!” exclaimed Dani, grinning from ear to ear. She reached for the can which Kelly plunked down on a high shelf.
“Guys—help,” yelled Kelly.
They were supposed to be babysitting while Dad worked in his basement office on a presentation, but her cry brought him along with all the boys.
“What if Mom comes home and sees this….” Tears streamed down Kelly’s cheeks. “I wanted her to be surprised!”
“She’ll be surprised all right,” Doug choked with laughter.
“It’s not funny!”
Dad put an arm around her. “I heard you vacuuming. That was a very nice idea. Come on, I’ll help you clean up.”
“No, Dad,” put in Brent, “we’ll do it. You have to get your presentation done.”
The boy pulled the vacuum back out of the closet, and glared at his brothers who got the hint. They took the two little girls up to their room to play. Kelly thanked him and got out the dust cloth. It took a while but finally the room was back to normal, though the faint fragrance of baby powder still lingered.
She took her card and art materials up to her room and started over. Maybe she could salvage the card. Mom might like Tracy’s elephants. She supposed she could let Dani do some snow—since she liked snow so much. She could let the little girls sign it, too….
…
Meanwhile, Doug had suddenly come up with a new tune. That’s the way it happened sometimes—just out of the blue. He grabbed his twin, who was exhausted after helping clean up the living room. Brent perked up though when Doug played the tune on his guitar. Brent’s guitar was in the shop being repaired after Tracy had stomped on it, but he listened as Doug work out the harmony. Then he jotted down some lyrics.
By dinner time, they had the song nearly ready. They’d put the finishing touches on later. It would come together. It always did.
Mom placed a delicious looking cheese and broccoli casserole on the table.
“So what have you two been doing, holed up in your room for hours?”
“Not much, Mom. Just fooling around on the guitar.” The two boys looked at each other, and grinned at the thought of their gift for her.
But that night, as they were just finishing up their new song- TWANG!
“A string broke! And I don’t have any more!”
“How can we get a guitar string at this time of night!”
“Our surprise is ruined!” said Doug, more disappointed than he’d been in a long time. “Now what are we going to do?”
To be continued….
Check in tomorrow for the ending of Mother’s Day Madness
By Carol Bennett
Stories of Faith for Kids 