Mother's Day today....

Today was, as I'm sure you know, Mother's Day.

Krista's mom and dad were here for the weekend, and my parents came over this morning and Z made red velvet waffles for everyone. Then, while everyone went to church I stayed home and got the house cleaned up and made lunch (largely based around an authentic Italian recipe and wine recommendations from our friends Sean and Shandra Galloway -- Shandra should be updating her blog with recipes soon, and I'll put a link). This pretty much exhausted everyone, but we had just enough strength to sing happy birthday to my brother-in-law Kevin and eat some ice cream cake.

Thanks, mom, for being a great mom. I can't complain a bit about your excellent mothering skills, which is, I'm sure, a sign that I've grown up and you did well. I'm thankful for you and all that you've taught me.

Now the kids are off cleaning their rooms (or are wise enough not not to surface so we can make sure they're cleaning their rooms, at least) and I've got M in the tub. Pretty soon we're going to wrap up the day by watching the next episode of the BBC's Sherlock Holmes, which should be a nice way to close things out. In honor of that excellent show, here's a picture of an otter who looks like Benedict Cumberbach.

My friend Sarah "Shmoopios" Cheung sent these along, and you can see the whole hilarious series of pictures here. Our day was quick and