Just Like My Mom: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM!! (And Sister, and Sisters-in-Love (that's you, too, Anni), Mama Jo, and Diane!)

What makes for a Happy Mother's Day?

Oh, I'm sure the answer is a bit different for every woman.  Breakfast in bed.  Flowers.  Jewelry.  Baubels.  Cards.  Candy.  I'm sure those could all contribute to a heavenly day for many a woman.  Here and now I'm going to answer for myself, though, of course.  ;)

My Mom always ask my siblings and me for the one thing she wanted most.  She asked us to be kind to one another and completely obedient for the whole day of Mother's Day.  That's all she wanted.  She didn't need flowers.  She didn't want jewels.  She didn't need a THING in the world.  She did, most assuredly, accept all tokens with grace and appreciation, but she was always disappointed.  Why?  Cause we never could come through that one day a year (or two, cause she often asked for this same precious gift for her birthday) without bickering, outright disobedience to her, or some other form of unwanted behavior.

I get it now.  I TOTALLY and completely GET IT!  I also understand our Father in Heaven's declarations: "If ye love me, keep my commandments," more fully, though, I'm sure, not to the fullness with which I some day will understand His declarations as a result of being a human in a fallen world.  Understanding a bit better here and there, though, IS something!  :)  These declarations of the Lord are found throughout the Bible and Book of Mormon... restated over and over again in various forms.  I GET IT!!!  I do appreciate the "things" and what they represent of my children's and husband's love for me, for sure.  When those things are given, I am grateful for the expressions/representations of their love and do try to accept them with grace and appreciation.  But the only gift I really want from my children is the same one my Mom asked of me and my siblings.  Just kindness and obedience.  Just for one day (or two, cause I think I ask for it for my birthday, too.)  Haven't got it yet, but I'm still hoping.  Probably, just like my Mom did.  Year after year, over and over she asked and hoped.

Thank you, Mom, for teaching me the most important lessons and leading us by example.  I'm sorry I didn't GET IT (SO much of it!!) until these later years of my life... but at least I didn't make you (us) wait 'till you were on the other side!  ;)  I'm so grateful for your endless supply of hope in and for my siblings and me.  I'm grateful that you have loved us without condition.  I'm grateful for your examples of service and acceptance.  You are truly an Angel, Mother!  ^_^

Thank you, Mama Jo, for loving me and mine like we were always yours.  You are a bright and shining example of Christ's Love and I'm so grateful He brought us to where we could become yours!  We all love you!!!

Thank you, Evelyn.  Thank you for being an amazing woman who is an awesome example to me of the kind of woman Christ would have us all aim at being.  ^_^  You are a woman of strength and faith, so much like our Mom and I'm so GLAD you are my sister!  I'm thankful, OH so thankful, that you accept me as I am rather than holding who I used to be over my head and tormenting me with my past transgressions.  You are an example of forgiveness.  I'm grateful for your kindness, for your easiness in sharing of your wisdom.  I'm grateful for the opportunity you provided me to be in the presence of your family and to meet the littlest niece I have in your family.  You are a gift.  I'm GLAD you are my sister!

To my Sisters-In-Love, I'm going to address you in the order in which you became known to me.  :)

Caroline, you are awesome.  I'm so glad Josh chose you to be his wife.  The woman with whom he would work through this life, come what may.  The woman with whom he will strive to be raised to Glory for the eternities.  Out of all the women he could've chosen, I'm GLAD he chose you!.  You are a wonderful Mother.  You are a sweet and GOOD person.  You love God and have an amazingly strong Spirit.  I love you.  Thank you for dealing with us in all our craziness.  Thank you for loving us and accepting us and being a part of our family!  I love you!

Anni, I love you.  I miss you.  I wish I knew what I could do to be rewarded with your acceptance.  I'm grateful for who you are because who you are has impacted who Jessie was when I met him and who he is today.  I love my man, so no matter what, I will always ALWAYS love you.  You are family.  I love you.

Barb, you are such a sweet woman!  You are an wonderful Mother.  You are gentle, quiet, calm and exude peacefulness (even if you don't feel it ^_^).  I appreciate and value your example.  My Brother made a superb choice when he made you his wife and eternal partner.  I'm thankful for you and grateful that his choice of you blesses me to have the opportunity to call you Sister forever!  I love you.  I'm GLAD you are my sister.

Diane.  I'm GLAD you married who you did.  I'm thankful that you love him and bless our lives by being his wife.  I'm glad you love Jessie and Anni.  We love you.

Sage.  I didn't address you in the title and I don't know if you'll ever see this, but I feel compelled to address you here and now.  You have, above any woman not directly attached to me as family (blood or adopted), have influenced me in my pursuit of enjoyment of my highest calling more than any other woman ever has.  You have always spoken your heart and changed mine in so doing.  You have truly been a Sage in my life.  I'm more grateful to you than words can declare.  I believe, with great swellings, that YOU are among the most important reasons that Father brought us to the area in which I was blessed to observe and meet and come to know you a little bit.  You provided me the wise words, feelings, thoughts for which I esteem you a Sage.  You also administered to me of a healing balm, much like that which could be made of the herb sage.  You are a truly amazing and wonderful woman.  You are an example of striving in Christ to be His and to become ever more like Him.  I'm so much more thankful for you and to you than I can ever convey!  I love you.  I'm GLAD I know you.  I miss you achingly sometimes.  But I'm thankful that you love me still!

To all the other mothers I have not directly addressed:  I know the Lord has put you in my life and I'm SO grateful to know you.  I love you.  I'm GLAD you are who you are because without you I could not progress to become the woman the Lord would have me be... the Mother He wants me to become.  THANK YOU for being who you are!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

The Surprise Unleashed

Have you been on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what Jess has been planning? Well, probably not... I understand. My present is NOT as big a deal to you as it is to me. :) That's okay. I totally understand!

Well, I was posing twenty questions to Jess and trying to figure out what it was that he'd purchased and put together for me. I thought it was something heavy and something he had to put togehter because Jess asked me a couple leading questions that conceivably could have gone either way, but the words he used to ask them totally lead me to believe the gift was heavy and had to be put together! Anyway... it isn't anything of the sort!

He's a trickster, my Jessie. You might not know it, but you never can tell with my guy. I must say, though, that since he made the decision to quit smoking, he has been SUPER thoughtful and loving... it's like I have the guy I fell in love with back! It's AWEsome!!!!!! And this gift is definitely another instance of feeling that my "old" Jessie is back. :) I say that because when we were early in our years together he listened to things I said and remembered little things. Then, later on he would pull things out of the air (it seemed to me because I'd forgotten what I'd said that had to do with the moment) and give me the most wonderful gift of a thing or time or something he'd made. Well, that's exactly what he did for me for this Mother's Day!

Back to the trickster bit, he totally packaged my tiny light present in an assortment of various sized boxes. Then he carried it in like it was super heavy! Right before I sat down, I tapped the box with my foot to sort of test out the weight. He knew he was caught in that trick because the box moved a lot relative to the tap, so I KNEW it wasn't heavy gift. 4 boxes into opening the package I finally found my present. What, what, WHAT was it, you ask?

Well, I would like to forestall your gratification for just a moment and take you back in time. A little while after Mother's Day last year Jess, the girls, and I went to visit my friend Denise Poleski. She's also the sweet lady who gave me the makeup I'm wearing because she doesn't feel her most beautiful when preggie and wanted to give me something to spiffy-up. It's working, too! heeheehee ;) Anyway, while visiting her to drop off cookies I'd made for her birthday, she showed us her Mother's Day gift. Have YOU seen the iPod Shuffle? OH MY GOODNESS!!! It is tiny and light and an exerciser's dream for occupying the mind with something other than thoughts or baby squeals! I thought it was super cool.

I'm sure I mentioned it to Jessie a few times after that and I'm sure I talked to him about my friend, Heather Harris's iPod and how she uses it to run. And, I know for sure, I stopped to look at a display of the tiny little music holders (MP3 Players) they have at WalMart once, really recently, when Jess was shopping with us. I may have even commented that I thought they were cool and wished I could consider such an expenditure. But I would never have seriously considered purchasing it for myself in our current circumstances.

So, it becomes ever more clear how Jessie's statement of, "Sometimes you need things you don't need," really does make sense for this gift. Have you guessed what he got yet? Well, if you guessed an iPod (of any kind) you'd be wrong. ^_^ BUT he did get me an MP3 Player! It's a 2 gig player so it holds lots and lots of music and Jess wants to buy a subscription to either a music download thingy or a book download thingy. Ok, so I'm totally WAY out of the lingo in this area, but still. You know what I'm talking about, right? I actually get a free month trial on the book download thingy and he was going to put load one onto my player, but he had no idea WHAT I would like, so he didn't. However, he DID put some music he knew I would like: Metallica, OUR song, and a song about an Island in the Sun (because that's what we live on!). He also did a voice recording that explained the gift. SO AWESOME!!!!

There is yet another reason this is a timely and WONDERFUL gift for me. You see, recently I was frustrated (as I am many nights when we come home from walking) with the girls AND Jess happened to be available to hear my complaint. I was sort of unloading my grief over their bickering in the buggy and wondered outloud to him if there was some way I could attach a 10-foot pole to the buggy and still safely walk with them. I have LOTS of invention ideas, so he could have easily thought I was working on something. He looked at me oddly for a minute and then smiled and I laughed because I really was joking (even though it WOULD be nice sometimes!!!). Well, this gift is sort of like a 10-foot pole without the actual distance AND it's much safer than the pole would be considering how sometimes I have to move quickly because people just don't seem to like walkers very much! I just have to make sure to regularly check the sounds around me and not turn the music up TOO loudly when they are being disagreeable with one another. So, my hour-long walks will be ever more soothing and much less stressful for me now! :) Thanks to my dear thoughtful hubbie!!!

Now all I have to do is get a CD player or mini radio for the girls and we'll be set! ^_^ I would even consider one of those toteable movie players, but then I'd have to worry about timing reading class for right before our walk.... I dunno. It sure would keep Ria occupied, though! :) But, Ria really isn't the one that has the problem with the hour in the buggy.... ahwell