To my mom, on Mother's Day

To my mom,

...who taught me to look for answers even when there didn't seem to be one

...who taught me to think for myself

...who taught me to love without condition

...who taught me to be a self-less mother (although I often fail)

...who has the talent of making me furious with one statement

...who is very often right, even if it makes me angry

...who can comfort me like no one else

...who has arms that can hug away the overwhelming problems of this life

...who has a lap that I'm never to old to sit in

...who gives and gives and gives of her time, love, energy, and patience without reserve

Thank you mom for being you.  Thank you for loving me.  Thank you for never holding back.  Thank you.

I wish that on this Mother's Day, I could take a walk with you on the shoulder of your country road.  I wish that I could rub your feet for you.  I wish that we could cook a great big messy meal together, and then make you tell me 8 times to wash the dishes.  I love you.

Love,

~Faith

Elijah's class Mother's Day Tea Party

Yesterday, Elijah's class had a Mother's Day Tea Party first thing in the morning.  Jonah, Lavella and I went, and it was so precious.  They sang some "Mother's Day" songs to us, served us sweet tea and muffins, berries, and then gave us some handmade things they'd been working on through the week.



I probably should have found someone to watch Lavella and Jonah, because Jonah kept throwing fits, and it took quite a bit of energy to properly focus on Elijah and all of his efforts, but it was still a very special morning.

Besides a crepe paper corsage (pinned to my dress in the above picture, which I wore for the rest of the day) and a magnet which is already on our refrigerator, here are the special gifts that Elijah gave to me:



The portrait of me cracks me up.  What intense eyes!  And the purple lips!  His teacher told me that she was laughing when he asked her "What color should I use for Mommy's hair?  Yellow?  Red?  Black?"  He decided to go with the current shade to make it easier for me to choose from the wall of Mommy portraits (took me 3 guesses -- I'm terrible at this game!)

Here are my two favorite pages from the "Hats" book:



It's true that I do go to HEB (local grocery store) a LOT.

This is a beautiful painting of local wildflowers that they framed and is now hanging in our guest/children's bathroom, across from the one Andrew painted for me last year:



My very favorite part was the fill-in-the-blanks letter:



The last few lines (not pictured) read: "I wish Mom would go everywhere with me.  I wouldn't trade my mom for money."  So if anyone is hoping to trade money for me, that's not going to work.  You'll just have to try something else.

Andrew's 1st grade class made special books as well as a gift that I'm not allowed to open until Sunday. The book is very sweet:



My favorite page is the "cooking together" part.  Andrew and I have always cooked together, and now that he's getting to be a Big Guy, sometimes he'll have something he wants to talk about, and he'll cook with me and then start talking.  I love those moments, and I'm glad that he appreciates it too.

Here's last year's post on Andrew's class Mother's Day Tea Party -- same class, same teacher, same gifts.  I love how their personalities show through each part!  (The corsage Andrew gave me was solid pink, Elijah's was multi-colored, Andrew's flowers were all distinctly separated, etc.)