Mother’s Day is practically on top of us.

Around Easter I realized someone would have to come up with a plan for celebrating Mother’s Day.

I asked Jason then, “What should we do for Mother’s Day?”

Without missing a beat he put the spotlight back on me.

“What do you want to do for Mother’s Day?”

Crap.

What I really want is enough time to go get a pedicure and hair cut without feeling guilty that I’m not spending time with my daughter or working hard enough at my day job — you know, this journalism thing.

And something good to eat.

Turns out I’m not the only mom who doesn’t particularly enjoy this annual ritual of well-intentioned but often misguided celebration of mothers.

On May 1 as I waited for the pages to copy over to another server for the May 4 print edition so it could be sent to the press, I hopped onto one of my favorite blogs, Rants from Mommyland (www.rantsfrommommyland.com).

The blog, which is run by some hilarious mommies, posted about taking Mother’s Day back.

Because moms, at least the ones I know, aren’t looking for a fancy car or some bling-bling on Mother’s Day as the ladies at RFML posted.

No, man, we want to chill and have a little guilt-free time to ourselves.

But, they’re going one step further — the fine women at RFML are doing a project which involves moms helping moms.

That is awesomesauce. It is radtastic.

It’s called the Mother Pucker Project. By the time this column appears in print it will be nearly over. I would, however, encourage readers to check out the site and see the kind of impact it had.

I hope I can participate somehow. I suspect I will donate toward the movement to provide clean birth kits for women in third world countries who may otherwise die giving birth or shortly thereafter due to a lack of just a few dollars worth of necessities such as sterile latex gloves, a clean sheet and a razor to cut the umbilical cord.

To learn more about that, go to this post http://www.rantsfrommommyland.com/2012/05/whats-clean-birth-kit.html on Rants from Mommyland to get more details.

It really puts into perspective how annoying I find Mother’s Day to be both as a child and as a mom.

This reminds me to be grateful my sweet little girl has access to medical care, owns more toys than all of the children in Africa, and all the love she could want or need times infinity.

I spoke with Yvonne Roskeland, who lives in Seattle and founded World Birth Aid, about her efforts to provide clean birth kits to women in countries who need them particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. World Birth Aid is one of the organizations Rants from Mommyland suggests readers consider supporting.

Roskeland, who is originally from Norway and works as a nurse-midwife, saw firsthand the impact lacking a few basic supplies when delivering babies while she was in Afghanistan a few years ago.

“Women in these situations, they have nothing,” Roskeland said. “When you are a mother, you do appreciate the care that you have … and the opportunity that you in the United States and in different parts of Europe.”

On Mother’s Day, Roskeland said, we are thankful for our own mothers but it is also an opportunity to think about what women and their babies in countries such as Somalia face when it is time to give birth as well as after delivery.

Clean birth kits provided by World Birth Aid cost $3 and are put together in a sterile factory environment with the intent for the kits to remain sealed for long periods of time.

Out in the field, Roskeland said, for example in Somalia on the border of Kenya where she was recently, it rains then it gets sunny and the conditions can be less than ideal when it comes to cleanliness.

That $3 birth kit goes a long way under those circumstances.

“It doesn’t just go to the mother, it also goes to the baby, it reduces the risk of the (high) infant mortality rate for someone who has an ordinary, simple birth,” Roskeland said. “In the United States, $3 is not that much for us, and it helps two lives. That’s what makes it so important on Mother’s Day. It can help them out. Not just for themselves but for the new life they hope to have in their arms.”

That makes my self-induced problems which are a result of my being too busy and too proud to ask for a little help seem downright trivial.

Still, I wouldn’t mind a pedicure and time to get a hair cut. That sounds shallow now. Yet I think moms everywhere get that — wanting a little time to ourselves once or twice a year is something likely all mothers yearn for while their children still live under their roofs.

So bring on Mother’s Day. I am going to make a donation of some kind to help other moms. I’d love it if you would consider it, too.

Then do something nice for the moms in your life while letting them know they’ve earned it.

Happy Mother’s Day.