Mom’s Musings

I would like to wish those of you who fit into this category a very happy Mother’s Day!

Today I have been the recipient of much pre-Mother’s Day activity.

Right after his morning coffee, my husband vacuumed the main floor of the house and then proceeded to clean the tile and the laminate with the Swiffer Wet Jet. Woohoo! The way to my heart is through my floor, evidently.

Further flooring activity followed as Rick finished installing the glueless laminate in the upstairs hall, and got the laundry chute in working order again. My, we have missed that chute. Guess we’re just spoiled.

After that, Rick’s attention turned to my oven. My oven door broke last week. The springs that allow the heavy door to open gently gave out with a horrible, exploding sound. After purchasing some springs at the hardware store, Rick repaired my oven door today. We were all excited about that, until we realized that the oven will not heat up. Guess I’ll have to call the repairman in after all to have a look at my faithful old oven (18 year old Dacor convection oven). I sure hope we don’t need to purchase another oven; too expensive, and I like this one.

Here you see a picture of Rick and me. I’m holding my Mother’s Day gift from Debra, the lovely bouquet she assembled in Floral Design class, and Rick is holding his gift to me. How do you like it?

Here is the lovely ceramic rose candle holder that Lydia made for me:

And here is Laura’s card. I especially enjoyed the sentiment, “Thanks for being the kind of mom who likes to chat . . .” because Laura and I chat online just about every day:

Just in today (5/11/2008): a lovely little azalea plant from daughter Sarah, plus a funny paper bookcover from Daiso Japan, our Japanese dollar store. Sometimes the sentiments written in English don’t make any sense, but these are pretty good: “HEY!”, “just for you”, “you’re special”, “hello”, “I appreciate you”, and “thanks so much” all on one little bookcover. Pretty cute.

For more Haiku, visit Jennifer over at Playgroups are No Place for Children and Christina at A Mommy Story.

The writing prompt this week at One Single Impression is FLOWERING. Just in time, our beloved dogwood trees, which are native to the Pacific Northwest, have unveiled their display. These photos were taken by my husband, through our bedroom window:

Heart gladdening sight,

Dogwood blooms, heavenward turned

With jubilant gaze.

While you care for us,

Have fun with us, too, Mommy;

Blink, and we’ll be grown.

For more Haiku, visit Jennifer over at Playgroups are No Place for Children and Christina at A Mommy Story.

ALMOST

My husband snapped some quick pics while we were on a little walk tonight.

Isn’t it wonderful? We have a self-walking doggie. She’s quite conscientious about holding the leash until you take it from her.

Enjoy visiting some more Wordless Wednesday participants!

Nothing too complicated about my inspiration for this week’s Haiku Friday:

• The weather
• The season
• Some cute photos of the three youngest children taken five years ago during similar weather

For more Haiku, visit Jennifer over at Playgroups are No Place for Children and Christina at A Mommy Story.

The prompt given this week for One Single Impression is COLOR. This is my offering:

There was a time in my life when I needed GREEN, could not feel calm or well, unless I could behold light filtering through fluttering leaves, and ferns unfurling in the forest. Walking mile after mile along quiet paths, my heart would quietly smile.

Quiet backwoods path

Soul thirsts for it knows not what

In green seclusion.

Like the gradual onset of Spring, the Lord of light imperceptibly dawned in my soul, and I realized that He was not only the giver of GREEN, but of all the colors of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Now I am willing to strongly embrace and experience and grow from the other colors that come into my life. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1.

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” – 1 John 1:5.

Still, the fact remains: I love GREEN, and am thankful for contemplative times surrounded by wondrous growing green.

I’m not going to show you LOTS of photos of grandson Diederick, but in case you’re interested in seeing some more VERY cute photos, our daughter Laura has a blog, too, and she loves taking pictures. Here is one of my favorites:

Here it is, time to begin winding down for sleepy-time, and I still haven’t posted on the dear old blog. If you checked earlier, hoping for some little spark of creativity from my small corner of the Internet, Thank You!

I won’t take up your time this evening enumerating the many small, medium, and large tasks that occupied me up until this creative moment, but suffice it to say, some of them got done.

When Michael and Kayla were home for a visit this weekend, they snapped some funny photos of Rick and me at our computers in his office. We spend a lot of time together, yet not together, in Rick’s office, as you shall see.

Rick working at his computer, and me blogging at mine

Favorite comic:

MUTTS, by Patrick McDonnell,

Starring Earl and Mooch.

If you love your pets,

Love to hug trees, want world peace,

Check out this “funny.”

My girls are fans, too

Of pets, the earth, and cute clothes

Inspired by the MUTTS.

For more Haiku, visit Jennifer over at Playgroups are No Place for Children and Christina at A Mommy Story.