Every year before Mother's Day, my family asks how I would like to celebrate. They suggest restaurants, day trips, and movies. My response is the usual, "Let me think about it." Inevitably the day arrives, and I'm still "thinking about it".

Due to my indecisiveness, we wind up doing what we would normally do on a regular weekend: spending quiet time together. The only little extra is that the potential arguments are quickly silenced by "It's Mother's Day!"

I suppose I've never really taken Mother's Day very personally because I've felt that it was my mother and mother-in-law who deserved that special thank you. They'e the ones who mastered motherhood. They're the ones who inspired us with heroic stories, comforted us when our names were ridiculed, and educated us to be bicultural as well as bilingual. Such accomplishments seem phenomenal compared to breaking up the fights, rushing to the hospital with an hysterical child bleeding from a split chin, or reminding the kids that tomorrow is a school night and 11:00 p.m. is not an appropriate time for bed. This entire normalcy seems too ordinary for celebration.

I picture myself on Mother's Day beguiling my grandchildren with wonderful Lithuanian folk tales when I'm older, grayer, and wiser...much wiser. I'm not ready to be feted as being "extra special even for one day a year.

Yet, after reading about Our Lady of Šiluva (p. 9) and "Mother's Day Remembered" (p. 13), I find myself thinking how lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to experience motherhood and all the runny noses, first smiles, and moments of realization that go with raising children. When I watch my children interact with their grandparents in the Lithuanian language, I see the connection between generations begun and instilled by our mothers. How truly fulfilled and unique my life has become with the sons my husband and I are raising. And how differently I would see the world without them.

I still don't feel "extra special". But this year, I have a definite answer to the perennial question of, "How would you like to celebrate Mother's Day?" I think we're going to do what the kids want to do, and create more memories to recall when older, grayer and much wiser.