Poor me, I thought. For the first time in my life, I wouldn’t be home with my kids and grandkids for Mother’s Day.
Poor me NOT!
I just returned home from one of the very best Mother’s Day weekends of my entire life, and I have a secret to share with all of you mothers and others: Next year, spend your Mother’s Day away.
That’s exactly what Shanda and I did this past weekend as we traveled to Camp Harrison — a first-class, breathtakingly beautiful, YMCA camp – in the mountains of North Carolina for a Women’s Wellness Weekend Retreat where I spoke and where we and a group of other women were spoiled completely rotten. Take a look:
Meet Trace, our chef for the weekend.
Yes, that’s right, chef. Who knew camp food and fine cuisine could be synonymous?
As in freshly prepared individual quiche cups with hand-made crust and garden-picked herbs for breakfast. Yum!
And on Sunday morning, Trace and his staff prepared eggs benedict, sweet potato biscuits, a smorgasbord of other decadent choices, and . . .
Mom-osas to drink (a yummy non-alcoholic concoction of orange juice and peach nectar garnished with strawberries). And see those cobalt blue cups? Joy of all Mother’s Day joys, they are filled with My Very Favorite Dessert of all time: panna cotta topped with sweet berries! Dessert for breakfast! Could there possibly be a more perfect spoiled-rotten Mother’s Day treat??!!!
Some moms came by themselves to the retreat. Others came with their moms and grandmoms. But several moms brought their precious daughters with them for the weekend (I enjoyed teaching all of them a mother-daughter version of Beauty by The Book).
Oh, and did I also mention they had a masseuse at camp? Yes, to God be the glory, a masseuse!
Here’s Shanda (right) with Lisa Eller (left – Camp Harrison staff member and our new best friend), standing in front of the mountain-top massage tee-pee! What you cannot see is the massage therapist, Tina, inside that tee-pee with her perfectly blended lavender and rosemary aromatherapy oil, hot towels, and the Tempur-pedic massage table (oh, my goodness, the angels must have made this just for moms). With anointed hands blessed by God above, Tina spoiled women rotten all weekend long – including Shanda!
The friendly female Camp Harrison staffers made all of us moms feel, well, almost as young as they were during our Mother’s Day Away. With their kind help, we zip-lined, canoed, hiked, biked, and some of us even Zumba-ed (which was probably less about fitness and more about building our appetites for the next chef-inspired meal).
We even rode horses! Meet Ringo, my gentle, handsome steed.
And these are the amazing Camp Harrison cowgirls who had the power to coax and encourage me to saddle-up and overcome my I’m-way-too-old-for-this inhibitions, and rediscover just how relaxing a horseback ride really can be.
With several cool, woodsy trails to choose from, Shanda and I chose one of the easier ones (we’re adventurous, but we enjoy our adventure as sweat-free as possible).
We talked and laughed the entire hike (even though we did sweat a teensy bit). But what an accomplishment it was to make it to the top and take this selfie in front of the waterfall!
That evening, we enjoyed a country-gospel-bluegrass concert at the scenic, open-air Billy & Ruth Graham Chapel. The group was great, and the mountain-top scenery was the icing on the Mother’s-Day-Away cake.
Alas, our Mother’s Day Away was over far too soon. We met so many wonderful moms, grandmoms, and girls. And we’re so grateful to Dave & Margie Purcell, Camp Directors at Camp Harrison, for inviting us to be part of such a glorious and memorable weekend.
But God had one more blessing in store for Shanda and me on our Mother’s Day Away weekend.
Popcorn!!! We sniffed it out during our layover at the Chicago Midway Airport and quickly decided to let the spoiled-rotten treatment continue — even on the plane!
The secret to enjoying a spoiled rotten Mother’s Day? Mother’s Day Away.
Will you miss your kids and grandkids? Yes, you probably will. But do it anyway. Because there’s another secret to enjoying a spoiled rotten Mother’s Day: extend the spoiled rottenness.
Celebrate a two-weekends-in-a-row Mother’s Day. One weekend with the kids and grandkids. One weekend away. What more can I say except, “Hip hip hooray for Mother’s Day!”
Your spoiled rotten sister,
Did you enjoy a spoiled-rotten Mother’s Day? Tell me about it, OR share your favorite spoiled-rotten Mother’s Day ideas. Love hearing from you!