What Mothers Do in the Hodgepodge

1. What's something fun you're looking forward to on your May calendar? 

Driving to Kentucky with my daughter to visit my sister in her beautiful log cabin again. I'll stay five days, but my dear girl is staying on for three more before starting her internship with an organization called Scarlet Hope. I'm looking forward to the estrogen fest (I think??) and the change of pace and scenery.

2. What are some images that come to mind when you hear the word mother? 

Holding a baby at the breast, getting up at all hours of the night with a fussy infant, maneuvering a stroller full of shopping bags while carrying the child on her hip,  caressing the wispy soft hair of  toddler as she drifts off to sleep, playing ball with little boys in the yard, panicking when a child is lost at a department store or playground, driving kids to soccer/baseball/piano/school/youth group ad nauseum, negotiating and refereeing differences and disputes, lying in bed awake at night dealing with Mom Guilt, drinking more coffee than either Guatemala or Colombia can produce in a year, taking care of the pet that the kids PROMISED to feed/water/walk/bathe/brush/not complain about, praying for good friends for her teenagers, watching the clock from the first moment that teenager drives the family car alone for the first time until he or she is back in the driveway,  cooking umpteen hundred thousand gazillion meals after shopping umpteen hundred thousand bazillion times for food that costs $1008  a week and is gone in two days (or at least the "good stuff around here").... 

I also see images of mothers my age who love to just sit and listen and talk to her grown-up kids about anything and everything, just to be in their presence, adoring their beautiful eyes, the curl of their hair, the lilt of their voices, and wondering where the years went. 


3. What's something beautiful you own or have seen that's made of glass? 

I have a gorgeous handblown glass vase in  hues of fluorescent blues and greens,  that's shaped like a basket with a handle. My mom gave it to me. It's hand-painted with roses.

4. Was today typical? If not what made it unusual? 

So far it has not been typical.  My daughter is here, babysitting my niece for my sister whose husband is job hunting.  This little girl is talking up a "blues streak" as they say. She's bossy to our 80 pound golden retriever. Funny how he obeys a  two-and-a-half-year old when she shakes her finger at him and says "Sit, Wally, sit!" (His name is Reilly.)  It's also so cute how little kids pick up on the slightest thing you do. I was reading a book to her and needed to lick my finger to turn the page. Well, wouldn't you know, on the very next page, as I was reading, she licked her finger...

5. What is a quality you wish you could have more of?

Will power.

6. What's the next major purchase you need to make? Will it happen in the month of May? 

We need to remodel the kitchen of our rental in order to get top dollar when seeking to sell. So we've been pricing cabinets.  My hubby had planned as of last July when we bought the house to do all the fixer-upper things himself. But that was before he knew he'd be having major heart surgery in January. Can I just say that he has no umph to face the rigors of redoing a kitchen now.  And he hates the thought of losing profit to pay someone to do it. 

Will it happen in May? Don't know.  It's hubby's call on his timeline. 

7. What responsibility/job/work did you dislike while growing up but has proved helpful to you as an adult?

I had a LOT of responsibility/jobs/work while growing up. I hated cleaning bathrooms but it sure is helpful that I know how. I also wasn't at all fond of doing the dishes (still am not) but that's been helpful all my adult life. It wasn't until I went to college that I was SHOCKED how many girls didn't know how cook, clean, make a bed properly, groom a horse, weed a garden, set the table, sew a button on, dust furniture, or drive a stick shift. I just grew up assuming that's just what everyone learned from their parents.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

Please pray again for the family of baby Sophia, whom I've mentioned on here several times. Her mom's a dear friend of mine.  Sophia is 16 months old and has been fighting brain cancer for 10 of those.  Her doctor believes she is near the end, that she has given up, her body tired out. It has been 13 days since she last opened her eyes. She has been at home for a couple of months because there's nothing more doctors can do. They feed her through a tube, suction her because there's little gag reflex, she doesn't respond to touch or voices any more. Her parents spend their days crying and crying out to God for healing or to take her. They don't want her to suffer any more, but they can't bear the thought of life without her, either.