My love-hate relationship with the month of May

May is a mixed blessing. I eagerly anticipate so many things but also want to skip the month all-together. It is the busiest month with the culmination of so many things. We not only celebrate Gracie's birthday, and Mother's Day but we also finish up school and dance.

I love the excitement but dread the planning and the fullness of my schedule. I run from place-to-place. I go to work and attend meeting after meeting, then run to get the girls to dance rehearsal and end-of -the- year events.

This year we added James' graduation to the mix. What a milestone we got to celebrate! But, what a hassle to coordinate the logistics!

We've created some wonderful traditions for May without even realizing what we were doing! We light candles, have a small procession to the Virgin Mary statue, and say a prayer for the kids' chinese mothers on Mother's Day. This year Analiese was able to say the prayer! Even though Matthew is no longer with us we included his mother as we know that she must grieve over the loss of her child. It was eye-opening as Gracie indicated that she never thought about her chinese mom.

Another tradition is for all us to stop and get ice-cream after the the dance recital to celebrate (as Analiese declared!).

May brings the end of the school year and this year we have been able to celebrate Sarah's achievements. She received an excellence in academics award, presidential physical fitness and A/B honor roll for the year.

Maybe there should be an award for Mom's who survive May without being committed. What could we call it? The Maydurance award? Any suggestions??