Our son was home for six days between a Texas internship and his last mini-mester of physical therapy classes in Kentucky. Oh my we had some great conversations. His insights into health care were far beyond his 25 years. It was also fun to cook a roast and have someone to share it with.

DD’s last final was on Thursday. She packed up and came home as quick as she could, so she could see her brother before he flew out Friday morning. We had about 15 hours all together and we made the most of it.

My husband and kids conspired to celebrate Mother’s Day early. We drove into Austin to a restaurant called Threadgills that is known for its vegetables. When DD and I looked at the menu, we knew we in trouble. There were way too many delicious choices. One thing we liked about their menu was that some of the vegetables had symbols beside them. The symbols indicated which vegetables were cooked southern style with salt pork and which had a dairy sauce with cheese or milk. What a BTD friendly idea!

DD ordered a vegetable plate with turnip greens, black beans, and asparagus. I ordered a chopped steak with sweet potato fries and broccoli. We divided all of the vegetables in half, except for the sweet potatoes. So I got to try five vegetables and she got four. SS ordered meatloaf with Creole sauce. I got to sample that as well. Everything I tasted was wonderful.

Today our son unofficially receives his doctoral degree. I say unofficially, because he still has one more set of classes and one more internship before he can take his boards. Today is the ceremony where he shakes hands with the UK president, but Monday he goes back to class. As much as I would like to be there, he strongly discouraged us from making a long and expensive trip for one day. He said, “I’d rather have a nice family dinner in August when I’m officially through.”

So we celebrated Mother’s Day early, and we will celebrate Graduation late. It’s not the timing that’s important. It’s the happy time that the family is together.