Last year, I thought I didn’t need recognition for Mother’s Day. So, when nothing happened, I had a huge, bad, one-of-my-all-time-worst meltdowns with the girls in the car. I’d been feeling only mildly resentful when at a red light, I saw a girl cross the street carrying a huge bunch of flowers. I burst into tears.

My beautiful girls conferred fairly telepathically in the back seat of the car, aged up beyond their years, cut away from me in the grocery store, enlisted the help of a store employee who gave them a discount to match their allowances, and presented me with a huge bouquet of flowers in the checkout line. Fabulous. Another waterworks session. One of their all-time best childhood moments.

Since I’ve noticed that most of my meltdowns are due to my poor planning and/or my not taking responsibility for the way things are, this year, my aim is that no one go through such guilt-induced heroics for me. (Of course, minor heroics are always acceptable.)

I’m ignoring the internal discussion of cost and the debate that swirls around Hallmark holidays. A week or so ago, I planned and announced a brunch to a friend’s restaurant, to which, ahem, my family is expected to attend. It should be amazingly delicious; no one will suffer. That should be enough to fill that sneaky Mother’s Day hole right up. That, and perhaps a trip to the plant nursery if we can fit it in.

The gravy: others are paying attention, hopefully not feeling quite as manipulated as last year. Yesterday after a three-day road trip to a regional fifth-grade event, I came home to flowers, a card, swept floors, folded laundry and washed dishes. Bacon, uncooked by me, is frying up as I write. Mother’s Day is, as we know, also Housewife’s Day.

My cup overfloweth. I trust I’ll probably be able to face the laundry again tomorrow.

This post is part of a series of posts on trust, based on the 21-Day Salutes originated by blogger Colleen Wainwright. The intention is to write daily to help shift a habit. Originally, she had been told that it takes 21 days of new behavior to change a habit. She has since found out that it is apparently takes much longer. Oh well….