Mother

4 generations: Can you recognize me? I'm the bald one.

I’m thankful for the mothers in my life. My mother, who gave me just about everything and my grandmothers who carried faith, traditions, etiquette, and propriety through the generations. I’m glad to have elements of a Victorian woman in my own skill set because it’s kept me out of some trouble.

I’m thankful for the women who have mothered me, even though I was not their own. Some had children of their own to love; others did not. My experience has taught me that they, too are mothers.

I’m not a big fan of Mother’s Day for my own benefit. I don’t want a lot of fuss made about the “sacrifices” of motherhood. Frankly, I’m living the life I always wanted. I don’t need a cake to compensate for my time! I love to being a mother. I always have.

I will be accepting extra hugs and kisses from my children all day today. Happy Mother’s Day!

Date night

The Young Men in the ward treated their moms to a Mother’s Day dinner this week. The boys prepared an invitation and were drilled in etiquette in the weeks leading up to the event. We had a lovely meal outdoors overlooking the lake. I noticed that Daniel opened every door, pulled out my chair for me at the table, and prepared my plate before his own. I enjoyed my time with my good looking, dashing and intelligent young man.

Goals and patterns

I don’t think of myself as a goal-oriented person because I don’t make New Year’s resolutions and if I make a goal, I rarely write it down. However, I do try to establish patterns in my life. One of those patterns is to read a book a week. Oh, snap. Now it’s written down.

I made this goal after I learned that President Bush read a book a week. If he could do it, so could I. (You can read whatever you want into that comment.) I’ve never made it to 52 books a year (and I mean grown-up books!), but it doesn’t matter. Sometimes I pick up a 900 page novel and that’s just not going to be finished in a week… unless it’s Tolstoy. Sometimes life gets too busy, but I don’t scold myself.

With my schedule, I can only read little bits here and there when I am waiting in the car and this doesn’t amount to a lot of progress. I also don’t have a lot of evenings available. What this means is that I usually have to dedicate a day each week to reading. It’s a pajama day. It’s the day we have a meal from the freezer for dinner. It’s usually a Monday or a Tuesday. I still teach and oversee school, but I do minimal housework. It’s one of my favorite days of the week. It brings me into focus. It makes me feel spoiled. The kids like it, too, because they have a little more freedom.

Do you have a goal or pattern of living that feeds your soul?

Frontier

Each of us lives to forge a path through a frontier, a place no one has traveled. I don’t count myself as unique in my feelings, but it feels a bit lonely in my frontier today. Motherhood has always felt like parting curtain after curtain over vistas I could barely imagine. Paige has been the little pioneer who has borne the task of living the results of my reactions to each new vista.

I realized this week that my vision for my children during the past few years hasn’t stretched much past the age of 15. We’ve passed that ridge and now I feel more than a little suspended. I don’t want Paige to feel as suspended as I do. To whom can I talk? I worked for years to build a community among home educators here, but as the years have passed, Paige and Daniel’s age group has dwindled.  In our church congregation I am one of the oldest mothers. Paige has no one her age who attends church. She never complains. I just keep telling her that Heavenly Father knows where she lives and that it will all work out. My question, through my certain knowledge of God’s hand in our lives is, “What do we do now?”

I feel a little jump of excitement inside for whatever is next. We’ll figure it out like we always do, remembering that Heavenly Father knows where we are.

Celebrate

Do you keep a treasure box of precious notes? I have a box in my closet filled with sweet gifts and cards from my children. My favorite are the spontaneous, misspelled notes which they obviously created themselves with no editor overstepping the bounds of their devotion.

It seems that only children have the courage to try to put their love into poetry. Should it be this way? Shouldn’t we be braver as we age, matching our growing appreciation with a little bit of sentiment? I believe that mothers’ acts of love help give us the capacity to love others because they are the best messengers to carry a portion of God’s love for us.

Let’s celebrate that, and be courageous in our gestures of gratitude.

Wedding Day

We were married before most people in this picture had an email address.

Our first home didn’t have a computer and we couldn’t imagine a need for cell phones.

Obviously, when we were engaged, we didn’t make it “Facebook official.”

We have no digital photos of our wedding day and the only video footage we have is on VHS.

Our car had no air conditioning and I had still not had braces or my wisdom teeth pulled.

Gasoline was $1.30 a gallon. I think stamps were $0.34.

Four of the six children in the front row are now married, two are parents, one has a mission call, and the youngest graduates from high school this month.

Several of our relatives in this picture have passed away.

At this time, neither Richard nor I had earned a college degree. Only one of us had a job for the summer. We moved to a new state and our important belongings easily fit in the trunk.

In many ways, it doesn’t seem like 17 years have passed, but when I look at the life we have now, I see how much has changed. It’s true that the most important choice you ever make is the person you marry, and I appreciate the impact of the decision more each year. I am so grateful that he asked and that I said yes.

We didn’t have much, but we had each other, and that was and has always been everything I wanted.

You’ve got to have fun

I teach Newton’s Laws of motion using a hovercraft. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to teach a large group of elementary age children. One of the parents snapped these photos and I am so glad to have them. It was just a fun day. Daniel was my helper.

 We had a father and a grandfather there and I was so glad that they were willing to help. Timothy, Mark, and Daniel all took rides, but I don’t have photos of all of them.

I think this picture is hilarious. My favorite part of the class was after the kids left and all of the adults took a turn on the hovercraft.