Mother's Day Weekend 2013

While I regret that we did not get to travel to visit our mothers (the kids' grandmothers) on Mother's Day this weekend due to various conflicts, I still had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend to remember.

A dear friend from college who was a leader in our college ministry group and a spiritual big brother to me brought his family for a visit that weekend.  They were here for a nephew's graduation, but it was so nice to have them stay with us.  Their daughters are the same ages as our kids, so the children enjoyed a weekend long play date.  The adults caught up when we could between their numerous activities.

Girl Power

Saturday morning, my husband made a delicious, high carb, high fat breakfast as is his tradition.  I requested his delicious cinnamon roll pancakes with cream cheese frosting.  They were a huge hit, and he made enough for leftovers for many days to follow.  He also cut up a spread of fruit and fried some bacon.

After breakfast, my friend's wife and I went on a lovely walk along the river greenway behind our golf community.  We had such a great time chatting and neither of us brought a watch, so we did not return until 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave again.  I quickly baked some appetizers which looked horrid, but my dear friend skillfully carved away the ugly parts to make my brie and cheese ball appetizers look somewhat presentable while I got ready.

Since this friend had influenced numerous people in our area for God's Kingdom, I felt like a mini-reunion was in order.  For weeks prior, the Sunday school teachers who poured their hearts, lives, time, and wallets into the college members during that pivotal time of life and I tried to plan this reunion.  The offered to host the luncheon at their home.  Unfortunately, with it being Mother's Day weekend and with so many people having kids who are active in sports this time of year, the crowd was small.  These teachers hosted students for dinner every Friday evening each summer for 15 years, and at times during my college years there were almost 300 people there, so they know how to feed a crowd.  The luncheon began at noon, and we assumed we would wrap up around 2:30, but they were there until 4:30 and would have stayed longer had they not had another engagement with family at 5:00.  When we gathered together this time, we may have had more gray hairs and a quiver of kids around us, but it felt just like we were back in college 20 years ago.  I laughed so hard I cried!  Here are a few pics from the luncheon.

On Mother's Day, I woke up early (rare for me) and eager to start the day.  I took great pleasure in making breakfast for my family and the friends staying with us.  Seriously, serving these friends in this small way was such a joy for me, and I was reminded that serving my family day in and day out should bring me just as much pleasure instead of feeling like drudgery.  Hosting them gave me a much needed attitude adjustment!

We had a great worship service at church and then journeyed to a new subdivision to inspect the lots and choose one to purchase for our next home.  The development had only completed level one grading, so I changed out of my heels and into my rain boots while traversing the muddy uncleared lots.  My daughter complained, "But Mom, you told me to never mix different patterns when choosing outfits. Your boots don't match your dress!"  Since every Mother's Day picture over the past few years has been awkward and amusing, I knew a photo of that setting with me in my church dress and boots would be the perfect Mother's Day picture for 2013.

On the way home, we asked the kids if they would like attending the private classical Christian school only a few minutes from this land.  This school is much more formal than their current school with school uniforms, stately buildings, longer school hours, and a large array of extracurricular opportunities.  My daughter replied, "No!  I don't want to go to any rich school.  I'm much happier at my little country school!"  I may have raised a little redneck in her, but I prefer to be around authentic, laid back, country folk than materialistic, self-righteous city folk too.  However, I think her stereotypes of both schools are completely wrong and that she will find loving, genuine, unpretentious people at both schools!

While driving home, we passed a helicopter on the highway. It was hitched to a trailer.  The kids thought that was pretty cool, so I tried to snap a photo with my husband's phone.  It certainly isn't something you see every day!

We took the the more typical Mother's Day photos in front of our hedge when we returned home.  Here is evidence that I did indeed wear heels to church that day and not the rain boots pictured earlier.

While out taking these photos, we noticed that the first rose bud for the year had just bloomed on the kids' rose bushes.  These roses are typically pink, but this first one was pale, almost yellow.  Since yellow roses represent friendship, I told the friends staying with us that the rose had bloomed yellow in their honor.

While listening to Pandora a few days later, I heard the song, "One Heartbeat at a Time" by Stephen Curtis Chapman.  I'm not sure how I went this long without hearing that song but it is the perfect Mother's Day tune and spoke to my heart at a time when I really needed the encouragement. While I'm constantly wondering what my ministry calling is in life and what I should involve myself in that has eternal significance, so I needed to be reminded that shepherding these children is my primary ministry calling right now.  Check out the full lyrics and listen here.

You're up all night with a screaming baby 

You run all day at the speed of life 

And every day you feel a little bit less 

Like the beautiful woman you are

 
So you fall into bed when you run out of hours 

And you wonder if anything worth doing got done 

Oh, maybe you just don't know 

Or maybe you've forgotten
 

You, you are changing the world 

One little heartbeat at a time

Making history with every touch 

And every smile
 

Oh, you, you may not see it now 

But I believe that time will tell  

How you, you are changing the world  

One little heartbeat at a time

 
With every, "I know you can do it" 

And every tear that you kiss away  

So many little things that seem to go unnoticed 

They're just like the drops of rain, over time they become a river

 
And you, you are changing the world  

One little heartbeat at a time  

Making history with every touch 

And every smile
 

Oh, you, you may not see it now  

But I believe that time will tell  

How you, you are changing the world  

One little heartbeat at a time
 

You're beautiful, so beautiful 

How you're changing the world...(repeat chorus)