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.

A HAPPY FAMILY by Giovanni Battista Torriglia

As I was looking at other blogs this morning, I came across this lovely image posted on someone else’s blog. I found it again at Painting Place, where one may purchase artwork.

Some things in the picture that speak forth happiness, I think, are:

1. The mother is smiling at the children, and the children are smiling at one another.
2. The mother is enjoying her children even while she is busy.
3. The mother is busy for the benefit of her family vs. self-centered or self-indulgent. Those varients see children as interruptions and burdens, an attitude not conducive to family happiness.
4. The house looks clean (See the shining floor?) but not insanely neat (which drives one insane to maintain). As the saying goes, it’s clean enough to be healthy, and messy enough to be comfortable.
5. The children are cheerfully helping Mommy by watching and entertaining the baby.
6. The son has just arrived home from school (See his school bag on the floor by his chair?). His first focus is not on himself, but on greeting and enjoying his family. Wow!
7. Subconsciously, the late afternoon lighting contributes to the feeling of coziness.
8. I always wanted the cottage look, with those deep-set windows in the thick walls. Is that a hidden desire of lots of folks, which is nurtured by this homey scene?

Yano at Ten on Tuesday
has asked her readers, “What are ten things you love about your life?”

There are many more than ten things that I could list. I have a wonderful life, a blessed life, and a busy life. But, since I have such a busy life, I’m thankful that Yano only wants us to list ten things. Here’s my list:

• I love being reconciled to God, through the active and passive obedience of Christ on my behalf. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” – 1 Timothy 2:5,6.
  
• I love my husband, and am thankful for him. What a blessing to be married to a godly, unselfish, hard-working guy, who also is a teaser-mc-beazer.
  
• I love my children, each and every one of them. I am so thankful for all the great times we’ve enjoyed together as they’ve been growing up.
  
• I love my church. What a blessing to gather together with God’s people to hear the faithful preaching of God’s Word on Sundays! One special emphasis at our church is learning to love one another, which is a very good thing indeed.
  
• I love my work as a paraeducator. Each day is different and challenging, and the work has such a worthwhile end: furthering the educational development of young people.
  
• I love my in-laws. They are common-sense, hard-working, generous people who love their children and grandchildren. And, they’re fun to visit, too.
  
• I love having internet access, and a blog to write. What a great outlet this is!
  
• I love having enough of life’s necessities, some of life’s luxuries, but not so much money that I need to worry about it.
  
• I love having a healthy, strong body, still a faithful servant to me, so that I may work and be useful.
  
• I love my sanity and intelligence. Thinking about things is a genuine pleasure.
  

Here is a quick little post, right before bed. It has been such a busy day; I am tired beyond all reason, but had to pop on the internet quickly to visit a few friends’ blogs and do a wee post myself before retiring for the night.

I was thankful today to move my mom from the extended care facility where she has been for the past two weeks (after having the generator in her pacemaker replaced) back to the lovely assisted living apartment which she has called “home” for the past year. Once there, she demonstrated for me her proficiency doing various tasks while using her walker, which is a good thing.

We think we have a good plan to strengthen her. She will have physical therapy twice a week and I will constantly be asking her if she is doing any walking besides just walking to the elevator to go to the dining room for meals.

I am also thankful:

• to Rebecca for doing the laundry while I was out helping my mom,
  
• to Lydia for cleaning up the kitchen,
  
• to Debra for vacuuming the house, and
  
• to all of them for feeding themselves “catch-as-catch-can” fashion, so I didn’t have to hear the lament, “What’s for dinner?” at 9p.m.

(Image from Snapshots of Joy)

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:

The prompt this week for One Single Impression is GLORY. Immediately I thought of the GLORY OF GOD. Specifically, I thought of how God manifests His GLORY in the creation that we see all around us (and in us).

A helpful summary of Christian doctrine, The Westminster Confession of Faith, says this about God’s GLORY in creation:

It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the GLORY of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good. – The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647, Chapter 4: Of Creation.

In our family, during daily Bible reading times, we also sing from God’s song book, the Book of Psalms. One of our favorite psalms, Psalm 148, speaks of God’s GLORY in creation. Here is the metrical version of Psalm 148:1-14 taken from The Scottish Psalter, published 1650:

The Lord of heav’n confess,

On high his glory raise.

Him let all angels bless,

Him all his armies praise.

Him glorify

Sun, moon, and stars;

Ye higher spheres,

And cloudy sky.

From God your beings are,

Him therefore famous make;

You all created were,

When he the word but spake.

And from that place,

Where fix’d you be

By his decree,

You cannot pass.

Praise God from earth below,

Ye dragons and ye deeps:

Fire, hail, clouds, wind, and snow,

Whom in command he keeps.

Praise ye his name,

Hills great and small,

Trees low and tall;

Beasts wild and tame;

All things that creep or fly,

Ye kings, ye vulgar throng,

All princes mean or high;

Both men and virgins young,

Ev’n young and old,

Exalt his name;

For much his fame

Should be extoll’d.

O let God’s name be prais’d

Above both earth and sky;

For he his saints hath rais’d,

And set their horn on high;

Ev’n those that be

Of Isr’el’s race,

Near to his grace.

The Lord praise ye.

Those of you interested in meter (which means all of you, I imagine!) will note that this metrical psalm is written in 66. 66. 88. We sing this Psalm to the tune Darwall, written by John Darwall.darwalls148th

I love this Spiritual, and these folks have beautiful voices. This is the Romanian “Acoustic Choir.”

THURSDAY THIRTEEN

Here it is, almost the end of the day, and I’m finally sitting down to do a Thursday Thirteen post (sigh). Since I was the recipient of much thoughtfulness on my recent birthday, I’m sharing with you Thirteen Gifts and Thank Yous.

The first gift to arrive was melt-in-your-mouth-sweet maple sugar candy from Vermont, from our daughter Laura and our son-in-law Darren. Thank you so much for the sweet treat, Sweeties!

My supervisor and fellow-paraeducators surprised me with gourmet fair trade cocoa (bittersweet - so yummy!) and a hand-made journal for haiku. When I walked into the Resource Room, the students all started singing Happy Birthday. It warmed the cockles of me heart, I tell you!

Have I ever mentioned how addicted I am to ANYTHING from the Bath & Body Works store? I have to walk on the far side of the aisle to keep from being drawn in to “just look.” Kayla surprised me with a summery scented Wild Honeysuckle body cream and candle. Thank you, Kayla!

Here are Biddo and T with the funny “Hectic Moose” collage they made for me.

This photo is of TWO presents: Dad and Mom Taron sent the gourmet coffees and the travel mug. Thank you! Thank you! And my sweetie husband got a new coffee maker that produces the desired commodity: strong, HOT coffee.

When the children were little, I baked my own birthday cake because it upset them if there was no cake. To them, no cake meant no birthday. This birthday cake came to me courtesy of dear Kayla.

The cake, prior to the serving of it, with the birthday girl.

I also received Happy Birthday phone calls.

This is a bloggy gift, not a birthday gift, but still very much appreciated. This is from my friend, Storyteller.

One more lovely gift from Storyteller. This was made by Greatfullivin.

So, three more things:

My dear husband washed my car.

I received lovely cards from loved ones.

Friends sent me greetings and goodies on Facebook.

Whew! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Click on this link to view a short presentation on the importance of letting others, especially young people, know that we love and value them. It made me cry.

I apologize for posting so late in the day. It has been one of THOSE days. We all have them. The days when too much MUST get done in too little time.

In our family, when one gets in that HECTIC frame of mind, one is being a HECTIC MOOSE. If one is rushing around at high speed, trying to get it all done, one is HECTIC MOOSING. My dear children have seen me in that state on more than one occasion, so it was so much fun to receive this collage from Kayla and Lydia for my birthday.

I haven’t yet learned how to piece large scanned items together, so here is the upper left portion of the collage:

And here is the lower right portion: