Mother, I Love You

My Mom is a farmgirl from Montana. Growing up, I loved hearing stories about her seven siblings and their wild adventures of farm life. Of course, as a child, you don't always appreciate a mother that knows how to work hard (and work her kids hard) but now that I am a mother and have my own home, I am so happy for what she taught me about keeping house.

Except for my first year of Girls' Camp, Mom and I always prepared for and went together. I was so proud that my mom could build the best and biggest fires, and that she had a great sense of humor when she let loose.

Mom drove us around to a bizillion activities and came to all of them. She was so supportive in all my time-consuming activities. She was a stay-at-home mom which I really came to love. When I was sick at school, she could pick me up, when I came home, she was there to greet me. She got up every morning to make lunch for us - and she got up early as we had a religious class that met at 6am!

Mom is a beautiful example of service. When our friends were in need, she mothered them and gave them advice. There was an elderly couple on my brother's paper route (which she eventually took over) who needed help when the husband became ill. She helped Mrs. B with the funeral, took her on errands, helped her when she became ill, was a good friend, and after her passing, helped take care of her arrangements. She is always serving and giving of her time to help those in need.

Mom loves to send care packages. At college, during my mission, and even now we get little packages with goodies, socks, or sale finds. Each package is a token of her thoughtfulness and love.

I love to see her as a grandmother. She adores her grandchildren and loves to spoil them. She and my Dad travel a lot to see their seven grandchildren who are spread across the country. She gets down on the floor and plays with them and learns the ins and outs of all their different personalities. She talks on the phone with them and listens patiently as I prompt the kids to sing their newly learned song or say their new word, or just listens to them jabber about nothing in particular.

I am so thankful that I can talk to my Mom daily and ask for advice or if she wouldn't mind if I sent my children to her by Express Mail for a month. She just laughs and reminds me that she's already been there, done that. When we get together, we stay up late and talk, go shopping, and generally don't get the things done that we wanted to get done. But we have fun together.

The older I get, the more like her I become, but somehow I don't mind so much anymore. I hope I can become more like her because she is a wonderful, strong woman that I look up to very much.

Thank you, Mom, for all that you are. I love you.

Family Pictures

Here is a preview of our family pictures we had taken last Saturday. I think they turned out wonderful! I especially love the pictures of the kids - they are so photogenic!

http://melissafullmer.com/blog/s-w-e-e-tdallas-family-photographer/

(You'll need to copy and paste it into your browser.)

Couches!!

Many of you have followed the couch saga. Well, we got out of loan debt, saved our pennies, and now we have two new couches! They are very comfortable and were worth the wait. The funny thing is that while talking to the sales lady during our several visits to the furniture store, she kept asking why we didn't just order the couches as they offered zero interest for 12 months. I had to keep reminding her that we were planning on paying in full once we'd saved up the right amount. I guess not many people do that anymore. But what a satisfying feeling it was to pay it all and not owe anything on them. Here's to inspiring you to do the same!



They are actually a little more golden than it shows in the picture.

Christmas Tree Shop!!!

For those of you who have spent any time in New England, you may have heard about a chain of stores called The Christmas Tree Shop. When I was younger, there were fewer of them and our trips to Cape Cod always included a long stop at CTS. Several years ago, they opened one closer to my parents' house. You can guess where we head every time I visit home...

The store is similar to Garden Ridge, but the merchandise moves quicker. One week you see toddler sized camping chairs and two days later they're gone. That kind of thing. Seasonal decor comes and goes, but they always have dishes, candles, cards, hair things, snacks, mirrors, lamps, curtains, etc. etc. Great fun and awesome prices are always to be found there.

So imagine my delight when I was driving around north Dallas the other day and saw a huge billboard that said, "Coming Soon - Christmas Tree Shop! Don't you just love a bargain?"

YES!!!

The store is opening this summer. So my dear friends who live in the Dallas area - we are going to have to make some trips and allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite stores.

Tell me about your favorite store!

Very Funny

My friend sent this to me the other day - very funny!

By Carolyn Hax
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Washington Post

Carolyn:

Best friend has child. Her: exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc. Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What'd you do today? Her: Park, play group . . .

Okay. I've done Internet searches, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners . . . I do all those things, too, and I don't do them EVERY DAY. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events) and I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy -- not a bad thing at all -- but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a peeing contest ("My life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions.


Tacoma, Wash.


Relax and enjoy. You're funny.

Or you're lying about having friends with kids.

Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.

Internet searches?

I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.


So, since it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand or keep your snit to yourself.

Vitamin D

At my recent physical, the Dr. found me sightly Vitamin D deficient. I started doing some research on it and have been impressed by what I found. Rather than giving you a long discourse on my findings, I'll simply post some articles that I found to be very helpful. I don't believe this is one of those passing fads, but something that we all need to take quite seriously. Read through at least the first article (it's rather lengthy) and tell me what you think.

http://www.westonaprice.org/The-Miracle-of-Vitamin-D.html

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/the-miracle-of-vitamin-d-sound-science-or-hype/
This article is a little more guarded about the benefits of the Vitamin. Just thought you'd like to get a range of opinions.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/articles/2008/06/23/time-in-the-sun-how-much-is-needed-for-vitamin-d.html
How much time in the sun do you need?

Happy Easter

Springtime is here again - a time of beauty and renewal of life; a time to enjoy Easter, the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I want to simply let you know how grateful I am for His suffering for all of us - for me. I know that He was resurrected, that He continues to live, that He continues to love and care for us. I hope that each of you will feel His love and personal care for you in your lives each day.

Have a wonderful Easter!