Mother's Day

Hailey and Elijah made me a very special Mother's day Breakfast in bed! The night before the had encouraged me to sleep in the next morning and they would take care of everything. They had plans to get up at 4:30 am (since I normally get up at about 5:30 am!)...but naturally...they slept in (they were so disappointed in themselves - but I was not!) Papa woke them up at 5:30 (he was aware of their plans) and I hopped in the shower. When I got out and returned to my bed, my bed was made and turned back like a fancy Bed and Breakfast with extra pillows against the wall from the day bed to sit comfortably and there sat this gorgeous tray for my breakfast. Let me take you on a tour of the specialness of this meal: 1. Elijah dug the tray out of storage in the barn. It is one of a set of three that we brought home with us from our first trip to Haiti to meet our girls in the orphanage (Very Mommy special!). 2. The flowers were harvested and carefully concealed the day before from a wild rose bush on our farm. The kids went on a hike on Shabbat looking for wild flowers for the occasion. 3. In the bowl was freshly made, warm coconut pudding, with bananas and homemade granola on top... This was their own creation. I had never had such a decadent thing for breakfast before...and let me tell you it was OUTSTANDING! Again, worthy of a fancy B&B! There was also a cup of fresh coffee was dripped to perfection. 4. The card they made also brought an extra smile to my face. I have been so discouraged with my garden. Most of our seeds did not sprout when we tried to start them ahead...and while I still had time to sow in the ground, I was struggling with premature emotions of defeat...and my two oldest kids new this. So they wanted to encourage me with the card. Do you see what the little green tag says?! They also continued to verbally encourage me and tell me..."Momma if you can grow us six kids, you can grow some seeds!" Priceless!! A great way to start the day - wouldn't you say??!!

This card was from Naomi (7). She loves to write. I love the pretty rainbow and the apples and cherries she put on the back. She LOVES copy work, so she asked daddy to write the words for her and she would copy them on the card. She has done so well with her English in the last two years since she has been home! She made her card while I was eating my breakfast...i think she felt she was "running out of time" because she was the last one to arrive with a card at my bedside. (She is so detailed and loves to do good work!) So I think she used the post-it on the back quick so she could get in there with the rest of us. I thought it was a creative touch!

This card is from Gideon (5). I don't know about you but I LOVE when I see my children draw happy faces...it does a momma's heat good. I am not sure if you recognize, the picture on the bottom of the card, but that is our piano, missing it's legs. It has the piano bend in front of it and the Tiffany style lamp on top. (I think it became a race for him too, because two days prior he drew one that was complete and I was very very fond of it...I think that it why He chose to draw it again for my card. He knew I would really like it.)

Here is Eliana's (4) card. Folded the paper in 4's and drew on all sides and INSIDE. ( I missed a side with my photo). It is so neat to watch her grow and mature in all ways, but a child's drawings say so much! The bottom right corner is her attempt at words/letters (like her big sister). She didn't quite have a specific picture in mind, but just let those creative juices flow! She did however point out that she drew some balloons for me. She LOVES balloons...and what says celebration more than balloons?? While everyone hugged and kissed me...I got lots of extra ones from her.

I was sure to tell them all that I was so glad to be their mommy.

The kids also made sure to tidy up the house real good before I came out. On Shabbat, often things just go "undone" until the sun goes down or the next day. Our counters get full and dishes remain undone...things get really messy fast, because we are in full on relax mode. So they were sure that everything was clean and clear for momma when I came out of my room. That too was SOOO NICE! :-)

We packed some snacks and our water bottles and headed out to the flea market that were were not able to get to the Sunday before (for Hailey's birthday) like we had planned. As it turned out we found 2 to go this time! We had a couple good finds, some homemade beef jerky at the first place and got to pet a miniature horse and see rabbits, chicken turkeys and LOTS of puppies for sale...and well...a lot of junk. :-) Then we had a lovely lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Athens AL. They gave all the Momma's a red longs stemmed rose. That was also nice. Then we proceeded to another flea indoor market we has seen a sign for. We got a couple things there (a couple headlamps and Hailey found a couple books and a hair tie. Chazak lost his shoe...but we found it. It was a good stop. We kept our eyes open for nurseries to buy some plants for the garden, but only found one open. We brought a couple things home from there.

We had hoped to stop at our friends house who was only 13 miles away from the first flea market. Their cow had just had twins and we had not seen them for a couple weeks. We were so angry at ourselves, because we forgot our phone at home!!! That absolutely crippled us. We couldn't call them for directions, could not remember the name of their town to look them up and got lost the last time we went...so we were NOT confident we could find them without talking with them...that part was very disappointing for me, because I really wanted visit. They ALWAYS come our way - we were WAY overdue to come theirs. :-(

We drove a round a little bit to explore in Alabama in the outskirts of Athens. What we saw was shocking. I should have taken pictures...but was too busy praying and staring. The destruction of the resent tornadoes down there was very serious. We drove around several nice developments that were WIPED OUT! House after house was demolished, piles of rubble everywhere. IN some places, you could see the trail of destruction as it plowed a very wide but obvious path...in other places, it looked like it just stayed a while and everything you could see was destroyed. In some yards there were signs that home owners erected and painted on with a message, like "We Stand Strong". One had the name of the development panted on it. Some houses had roofs blown off, but some walls stood. My mind raced as I prayed and we drove through. Did these people have basements? Where they safe? What did it sound like? Can you imagine the fear? What did they see? Did they have basements to go to? Were they huddled in their bathtubs? Did they have enough notice to get out before it came? If people were there after it passed and were able to get out of a basement...and they came upstairs to see their whole development gone...what did they do?? Do they run from house to house looking for others? Did they faint? Did they scream? Where they able to move at all? My heart goes out again to those families, I pray they are safe and leaning into YHVH for comfort, answers, security and guidance. I pray their family and community is also there for them. That was a very sobering drive...reminding me that every day we have is a precious gift from YHVH. He gives and takes away, may I never forget to count my days and treat each one precious as it truly is. May I never loose sight of what is really important. May YHVH work all that other junk out of me - so that I have no regrets.

We finished off the day, with wiener roast over an open fire when we got home (all beef organic - of course!), with homemade ww buns and fresh cut cantaloupe. Pappa took this picture of me and my lambs when we arrived home.

Blessings,