HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there. I hope your special day is a wonderful day! And a special Happy Mother's Day to the wonderful mothers of my grandchildren! As a tribute to my own mother who is now 94, I am adding this story about her to my blog today.

MOTHER

I am my mother’s firstborn child and it was five years before my sister was born and seven years before my brother was born. Daddy was away for much of my first five years because of World War II. Mother and I were close during my early years and I suspect that time together helped us to forge a wonderful relationship that has lasted for more than sixty years.

My mother has always been a gentle, caring, upbeat person and she spent untold hours with the three of us children. She read to us, helped us with our homework, and let us help her work in the yard. I remember her violets in the back yard when I was very young in Pampa. In Amarillo she had day lilies all along one side of our house, roses on the fence, and beautiful iris of all colors that she brought over from Mammy’s house. Mother was a great cook, although many things that she made came out of a can or box. I did not learn to cook “from scratch” until I married and left home. However, I do remember Mother’s marvelous cornbread that she served with a pot of pinto beans; her applesauce squares, pineapple upside-down cakes, and the date loaf candy that she made for Christmas.

With Mother’s help and guidance we learned to sew, knit, crochet, embroider, bead and to do almost every craft imaginable. She loved trying new things and let us work along with her. One year we did copper tooling, another year we beaded Styrofoam balls for Christmas and papier-mâché fruit another year. We watched her learn to make silver jewelry, create lovely needlework, knit sweaters and crochet Afghans. When our brother, Joe, joined an Indian Dance group through Boy Scouts, we all pitched in to make and bead his costumes and watch as he made his cast silver jewelry. I suspect that there were not many crafts that Mother did not try herself and she was eager to help us try anything we wanted. One year for Christmas I got leather tools and a mallet because I had expressed an interest in making a tooled belt. Another year we got a wood burning set and burned some interesting pictures into wood plaques and wooden boxes. I still have a wooden music box that I burned my name into and then varnished.

Mother has always been a marvelous listener, very easy to talk to and there was almost nothing that I did not tell her. I have always enjoyed being with Mother and consider her one of my best friends, as well as an advisor and supporter. After I grew up and left home, I looked forward to going home and staying up late talking to Mother—pouring my heart out to her and listening to her words of wisdom—given freely.

It is wonderful to have been gifted with such a talented and caring Mother!

Thankful Thursday

Today has been a great day so far. I have so many things to be thankful for. For instance, the temperature was delightful this morning so I opened all the windows and let the cool, fresh air into my house. Then I washed sheets and towels and hung them out on the clothesline--a very favorite task that I love this time of the year. My clothesline is in an isolated part of my wooded backyard and that area is a nice place for me to retreat, listen to the sounds of nature, and glance up into the one opening of blue sky amidst all the trees in the backyard. I call that opening in the trees my glimpse into heaven--sometimes cloudy, sometimes wispy with thin clouds and sometimes the deep, deep blue of a clear sky. Today it was deep blue and clear as a bell after several days of dark clouds.

Next I went to my mother's for a special Mothers' Day Luncheon. It was lovely with delicious food and even better desserts! Yum! Mother had just had her hair done and she looked beautiful. I am so lucky that she is close and happy to be where she is at this time of her life. Here are a few pictures from the luncheon.

And for my last thankful item: a friend is taking us out to eat at one of my all-time favorite seafood restaurants! Yippee! I don't have to cook dinner tonight! Thankful to have a cook's day off!

Thankful Thursday

The first thing I was thankful for today, Valentine's Day, was my brother, Joe. It is his ??th Birthday. I remembered back to the very snowy day in the Texas Panhandle when I was almost seven and Daddy came home to tell my sister and me that we had a new baby brother. In those days we didn't know the gender until the child made an appearance! I was so excited to have a brother who would not be interested in my dolls and girl toys--my sister was showing a healthy two-year-old interest in those things and I was often irritated with her! Joe was a good baby and we enjoyed having him around. Unfortunately, I left home for college by the time he was in junior high and I missed knowing him during those growing up years, but we have reconnected over the years and become the best of friends. We share similar interests in things like art and coin collecting and family matters.

I am also grateful that my brother and sister support me in so many ways. In the past few years they have been great in helping me deal with Mother's affairs and they are both great to bounce things off of when I need advice or a soft shoulder to cry on (over the telephone!). Actually I am very thankful, too, for my Mother who was celebrating Valentine's Day at the Summit today with a full schedule of things going on. She was getting ready to go out for a noonday concert at a nearby church and then back for a Valentine's Day party this afternoon. She was supposed to get a haircut and perm today so I don't know when they will work that into her busy schedule, but she said she was "booked up" for the day--and seemed delighted to have so many things going on. Here is a picture that I took of her, all dolled up and ready to celebrate the day. I took her the balloon, someone else gave her a heart-shaped box of chocolates and Joe sent the pretty flowers in a lovely vase. I know she was enjoying all that attention!

And the last, and MOST IMPORTANT thing I am thankful for today is my wonderful husband! He is so great with surprises. While I was out exercising and visiting Mother, he went out and bought beautiful red roses so that when I came home they were on the table with a card and a small box for a surprise! Later, he tells me, we have a "date" to go out and eat, so I need to get out my prettiest red sweater and be all "dolled up" and ready when dinner time rolls around!

Thankful Thursday...

For about six years my mother has lived in a wonderful retirement center about five minutes from my house. She loves it there and I am so thankful that she is close by and happy with her life at 92. The past couple of years we have had to deal with a number of medical problems and one cropped up the past week that really worried me. I stewed about it for several days and finally went to the director of the assisted living for advice. I got some tough but good advice. Yesterday was the day that we were to institute a new program to help Mother, but it was my job to talk to her about it first. I accomplished my task and then left Mother in the hands of the assisted living staff. I walked out of the facility with an immense sense of gratitude that I had wonderful help in dealing with these problems and did not have to do it all alone. Thank you, thank you to all the wonderful and caring people who work at Mother's assisted living facility.