Writing in the rain, part II

I've been here before, rain on the roof, a muddle of thoughts in my head. I should put the fire on, the lamps, the music too. Soon I will, but I'll write a bit first, stir the muddle, sift for one clear thought or two.Yesterday was such a good day. We all gave the best of ourselves, me, my partner, the children. It was Mothers' Day*, and it was a happy one. Last Mothers' Day we were in Paris (yelp!) and it started well, but deteriorated when we took the kids to the Musée d'Orsay: one of them was grumpy, bored, and got lost; the other one wanted to spend an hour looking at a (very attractive) stone owl and nothing else. But, still, we were in Paris, which is so mind-blowing in itself that a bit of kid-drama is just fine. Particularly in retrospect.Anyway, this Mothers' Day was at home. Ian and the Cat got up to make me breakfast, and the little Rabbit burrowed his way under the covers for a cuddle. He's a very good cuddler; he wraps his whole body around you, squeezes, then sort of holds you in an emphatically relaxed way that says "I love you and I want you to feel that and let's just hang out here and breathe together." And then he pats the back of your neck. Adorable, so I let go of sleeping in.Breakfast in bed often worries me — the crumbs, the wriggles — but I think we nailed it on this one. If you need to know, I think the vital ingredients are: trays and small tables, settled children, one adult being willing to sit on rather than in the bed and handle the pouring, spreading and passing, croissants, coffee and hot milk in jugs, orange juice, and a willingness to get up before it all turns to the bad.And in the afternoon we went to Purakaunui, which must be one of the loveliest places in the world. It's an inlet over the hill from Port Chalmers, all dinghies, boat sheds and cribs, mud flats and cockles, hills and bush, birds and warm afternoon sun. It has that simple little combination of sounds, too, that makes me so happy: the splash of an oar dipping into water, a child's voice, bellbirds and oyster catchers, footsteps on a leaf floor.We walked along the track to the playground, kicked the Cat's soccer ball, played in the swings, sat on the rocks, took off our shoes to feel the mud and the water. I took some time to myself, thought about my mum, missed her. I thought about other griefs that sharpen on Mothers' Day, about those for whom the day ramps up feelings of loss or fear or exhaustion. I held my children and my partner, let myself be warm and loved and grateful.When I got back to the car carrying the Rabbit, Ian said that the Cat was being a Yellow-Eyed Penguin. Sure enough, he was nesting in a flax bush. The Rabbit wanted in too, of course, and there they were, my boys, wedged in together, squawking, protecting their patch. * We had some discussion on Facebook about the position of that apostrophe, and my preferred style lost the day, but I'll make a place for it here. I like Mothering Day better anyway; could we switch to that?