Mother’s Day, 2015

This Mother’s Day will be the one I remember as the first that my boys really got “into it.”  That is, into the spirit behind Mother’s Day, and took it upon themselves to make it a treat!  I’ve had fun watching and listening to the process progress!

First of all, the boys declared that they would make breakfast–and pancakes it would be!    “Just write down the recipe and we will take care of the rest!  You just stay in bed and we will cook!” I was told.  That sounded good to me!

So, during my banishment from the kitchen, I took some time to putter around in the dirt and flower pots–a favorite past time of mine, which I don’t get to participate in nearly enough!  I replanted my herb plant and some Gerbera daisies that I’m attempting to rehabilitate from the bargain shelf at Wal-mart.  Watered my flowers.  Weeded my roses.  Picked some strawberries. Checked Facebook.  Twiddled my thumbs and listened to my stomach growl because it was taking a LONG TIME in there!

At one point, my youngest came out to report the first casualty.  Our wedding crystal fruit bowl didn’t make it through its experience of getting heated up on the burner and shattered. First lesson learned–crystal bowls and burners don’t get along!

Before long, as I passed through the kitchen area, I saw a box with shards of broken glass in several different colors.  Uh oh.

Heard while in waiting–“I’ve already eaten so much batter that I’m almost full!”  😆

It it was well worth the wait!  Breakfast was delicious and SWEET.   And served as only growing, energetic boys can come up with!  Sugar sprinkled on everything!  Little notes as place cards.  And I was blessed with beautiful flowers of all colors!

Time to go plant some more flowers!  This fun day is just beginning!  Mother’s Day with boys is the best!

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The rest of the day was just as eventful, but in a different sort of way.  We had to postpone a birthday get-together for Mom in order to go pick up a piece of work equipment for my husband.   Never ones to do things the traditional way, we had to travel several hours to go pick it up.  Hubby thought we should all come along, so we did. The route took us right last our relatives house, so we stopped in for a quick visit.  We should have known better than that, because the quick visit grew into an overnight stay.   It worked out in a fun, unplanned sort of way.  Hubby got the equipment; we all had a nice visit.  The cousins do enjoy playing together.

But I think that after all the excitement, everyone is suffering the effects!  Late to bed has produced some very hilarious boys.  That’s their opinion of themselves.  Their momma, which I happen to be, doesn’t find their endless jokes and goofing around quite so side-splitting.  So…they have banished to bed with lights out in hopes of a more even-keeled day in the morning!

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Tend the Garden

I liked this story so well that I wanted to share it.

I guess the reason I like it so much is because I have some little plants that need this kind of tending from me.

Can you relate, parents?

Storyshucker

A longtime friend commented during dinner that her next door neighbor’s son was on the path to nowhere and constantly in trouble. She thought herself clever referring to him as “a weed in the garden of life”. Although an avid fan of barbed words and wit, I found her comment harsh directed at a kid who was barely a teenager. He was dismissed and labeled as worthless. A weed.

“But maybe he’s a pokeweed!” I said in a positive tone.

She rolled her eyes. I recognized the look of resignation on her face. The look many of my friends have when I spit out a puzzling one-liner and they know a story is coming. She sipped her drink and grinned, arms crossed in silent permission for me to proceed.

Years ago I had a yard packed with plants. It was full of boxwoods, azaleas, and geraniums surrounding a dogwood centerpiece…

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Inch by inch

No, this isn’t an advertisement for a weight loss program.  Or is it?

“Little by little, inch by inch.”

Those words have been pulsating through my brain lately, and I’ve found myself humming them often, too.

The song’s chorus goes, “Little by little, inch by inch.  By the yard it’s hard; by the inch, what a cinch.  Don’t stare up the stairs, just step up the steps.  Little by little, inch by inch. ”

🐛

This has has proven to be a good motivator for me as we plod through trying to organize and sort through our belongings after our return home.   The magnitude of our “stuff” overwhelmed me as I looked around and saw stuff that we’ve lived for five months without, and most of it, never missed!  It was kind of eye-opening, as well as sobering.   We Americans like to collect stuff!  Ugh!  I resolved to begin a major whole-house sort-through before I stopped seeing all of the stuff and became comfortable with it again.

My my plans were a little ambitious, and the work is not going as quickly as I’d like it to go, but progress is being made, thankfully.   It’s hard to go through everything while living in it at the same time.  And I don’t get huge blocks of time everyday.   Some days nothing gets done, because life is more than sorting.   But we are working toward a goal.  As a newly favorite inspirational motivator says often, “Progress, not perfection”. Sounds like little by little, inch by inch, doesn’t it?

So far, we’ve sorted through the boys’ closets and clothes, cleaning out old stuff from their rooms that have collected.  Kids are barraged with lots of material stuff just like adults are, and they don’t know what to do with it either!  It’s almost paralyzing to have too much stuff, because if you have to move things to get to what’s stored behind, you are either going to skip it, or make a big mess trying to get to it.  Not a good option in either case.  Our kids need help sorting.  But we did all determine that papers that have collected and then sat for  more than a year aren’t going to get done (like coloring pages and paper puzzles from vbs) and don’t need to be kept. Too many clothes is a burden too, since they have to find a way to cram them into their drawers.  And you actually can’t find anything to wear with too many clothes, because, well, they’re all crammed in there!    I’m learning…I don’t have to keep everything passed along to my kids, even though it might be useful.  If it’s useful, but we have enough, it’s not useful to me.  So, I can without guilt pass it along, so someone else can use it!  But, many, many times, I have done that.  I’ve kept too much stuff, because, well, it was “free”.  Free, but certainly not freeing. Freeing is having enough, and a place to put it. Still working on that.

So, as our family slowly sorts, we are learning something about priorities. Not everything can be the most cherished possessions. We have to make choices.  No need to keep all of our college papers if no one’s even looking at them.  Probably, the wedding cards can go, after fourteen years!   And, we can learn to live a little freer if we actually find a place for what we have.

Yet it is literally inch by inch.   If you come to my house today, you’ll see bins lining the hallway, which have been sorted, but have to be delivered “somewhere else”.

With life rushing by at full steam, some days we even lose a few inches in progress.  But, then we have to pick back up the next opportunity and keep chugging along towards the goal.   Remember–progress, not perfection!

Little by little, we will get there!

🐛