Best Mother's Day Gift Ever

I never know what to keep.

Ellie comes home from preschool with projects almost everyday. Some are no-brainers, like the "pictures" that are mostly scribbles and look the same as every other scribble picture that comes home. But there are usually 2-3 a week that I wonder about keeping. As you can imagine, if I kept all those projects our house would qualify for one of those annoying hoarder's shows on TLC. Her teachers are great about holidays. For Christmas each family got a little memory book with all different pictures of the class in it, so I knew Mother's Day would bring something special and sure enough I was overwhelmed with super sweet little cards, pictures, projects...

and a little flowery plant in a sweet little painted pot.

If you know me well you know that my Mom doesn't call me "Gracie" because of my overwhelming ability to be graceful. Nope, that's not it. After we got home from school on Thursday, after I was bombarded with colorful, sticky, gooey, potted love, it happened. I dropped the beautiful little pot. It immediately cracked into too many pieces to count and the cute little pansies lay there on the ground in total defeat. My stomach dropped, my blood rushed and my heart pounded as Ellie turned the corner and saw her beautiful work of love and art in pieces on the ground.

We both stood there together in silence mourning this week's project that was a gift, that would not only be kept but would have been displayed for everyone to admire. When the silence got to me I said all I could think to say, "Oh Eleanor, I am so sorry." And then I got the best Mother's Day gift ever:

She put her little hand on my arm and said, "Don't worry Mom. It's ok. We can make a new one. My teachers have more flowers too. Don't worry Mom, don't worry."

My sweet girl.