Memories of Motherhood

Once your children are grown and leave home you tend to forget how much time, effort, blood, sweat and tears are involved with having babies and toddlers at home. The memories are there, but maybe you box them up and put them in the closet of your mind. My daughter graduated from high school in 1987 and went to college and then my son graduated in 1992 and went to college and it has been very quiet here ever since. There have been many days I wished that they were home and the house was messy and it was noisy here.

All of this to say I've renewed my respect for mothers with small children, after seeing how much work Sarah does in taking care of three energy filled boys, ages 4,3,1. I've just spent two weeks with Lenn and Sarah and the boys, in Dallas. It brings back memories of the nights that you don't get much sleep, being a peace keeper between the children, thinking at times there is more food on the floor than was eaten, constant washing of clothes,etc. So often after my own children were in bed I'd think "why was I so upset with them today?", they look like little angels now. Of course, the next day I remembered why I got upset with "the little angels".

Even though there is a hugh amount of effort that goes into raising children, they are so worth it. I have such fun memories of the past two weeks. Saturday we went up to Lake Murray in Oklahoma to be with my brother. He has a boat and he wanted us to come and go out on it. Andrew was sitting in the back of the boat urging his Uncle Bob to go faster so the waves would be bigger. He was fearful of getting in the deep water, but finally got on a small floating thing(don't know what it is called) and conquered his fear so he could go with his Daddy to the shore to throw rocks in the water.

Matthew had a harder time on the boat, but once we stopped and Mom and Dad were swimming he would walk to the back with his stick fishing pole and pretend to fish. The stick was another of his "treasures" that he loves to find. He snuggled with his Daddy on the way back to shore. He also loves to try anything he sees his big brother doing. They have such fun together.

Then you see Robbie coming right behind his two older brothers. He is eager to climb on anything, get into the little swimming pool they have, wrestle with them, etc. Since turning one, he is sitting forward in the car seat, eagerly looking out and seeing everything, smiling at his Mom and Dad as they look back at him. He also loves to swim and here he is in the water with his Dad.

It is hard being so far from Lenn and Sarah and the boys. I am thankful to the Lord for the times I get to be with them. They will be coming up to Ontario this summer for a week and I can hardly wait.

My Three Grandsons in Dallas

I'm having a great time in Dallas with Lenn, Sarah and their three boys (Andrew, Matthew, Robbie). As I watch each of them I see how different God has made them. They have such different personalities.

Andrew is 4 1/2 and looks just like his Daddy, and has the energy his Daddy had at his age. He loves to jump and run and climb. His co-ordination is unbelieveable for his age. I'm not nervous when he climbs on things(at least I try not to be). He seems to know how to do it without hurting himself. I love it when he is serious and is telling you something that is important. My heart just melts when I look at his sweet face and see the innocense of childhood just oozing out of him. He loves for someone to read books to him, loves to laugh. Coming home from eating lunch out today he kept asking his Daddy about motorcycles. One answer led to another question. He continues to love learning about things.

He especially loves quilts and blankets. When he was up at my house at Christmas, he was sleeping in one of the bedrooms with Matthew. I have an end table that has a quilted skirt on it and then a scarf on top of the skirt (the table is round) and then there is the round glass over these two items and a lamp sitting on the glass. After the first night, I was sitting downstairs waiting for everyone to get up and here comes Andrew, carrying the quilted skirt and scarf and he was saying he was very careful when he took them off the end table and explained how he did it. I just stared at him with my mouth open, not quite grasping the fact that he thought it was another quilt that he felt he needed. It also didn't dawn on me that there had been a piece of glass on top of the "quilt" and a glass lamp and to be worried that he could have hurt himself with them until Lenn had gone up to see what had taken place. It all made me laugh. I love making memories with him.

Then there is Matthew who is 3. Sarah and Lenn have told me how much he loves finding "treasures", but I didn't understand fully about this until this visit. It is amazing how he finds money when we are walking with him. I don't think there has been a day since I've been here that he hasn't found at least a penny or nickel when we have been out. He finds other things as well, and always comes home with another treasure. I'm sure he'll go deepsea diving for sunken treasure when he grows up.

I love it when he is talking about something serious. He talks with a deep voice and is ever so serious. You need to watch him also when he is drinking anything liquid. He will drink it until it is empty, usually walking around while drinking. It doesn't matter what it is. He has done this from the time he started drinking from a sippy cup. He follows his "big" brother around and tries everything Andrew tries. He also loves play dough, chalk painting, anything to do with art. Besides hunting for treasures when he is grown, he'll also sell his famous paintings all over the world.

The third grandson is Robbie. He will be 1 this month on the 18th. When I think of him I think of his magical smile that lights up the room. He always is ready to smile and laugh. It is funny to see him at the supper table with his brothers. He wants to enter into what is going on. He talks or yells right along with them, jabbering as if we should understand what he is saying. He also does things to make you laugh on purpose. He has started to walk and every day he is going further. Of course, when he crawls he can really motor. It is fun to see how fast he can get to what he is after. Yesterday his Aunt YaYa was over with her dog Pooky(not sure how to spell that). Robbie is all over him, loving him, and Pooky just lays there and lets him do it.

Children are a blessing from the Lord, especially grandchildren. I thank the Lord that Sarah and Lenn are raising their children to love the Lord. I thank the Lord for His blessings in my life.

Talking on ICHAT

Tonight I did a fun thing. I talked with my brother, Bob and his wife, Gail, and my sister, Shirley, on the webcam. This is the second time that I have gone on ICHAT and done this. Gail has been learning how to use the camera on her computer and last week she helped me get on line and we chatted for about 45 minutes face to face.

Shirley is visiting my brother in Oklahoma City and we talked on the phone earlier today to set up the time to do this tonight. We've been in Canada almost 40 years and have missed being with our families and this is a great new way to feel like you are more a part of their lives. Of course, now I have to worry about how I look before I call them. But I guess they feel the same way.

Shirley has a cat named Bootsie that she takes with her to Bob's, so she had to get her in the eye of the camera so I could say hi. We laughed a lot as Bob kept trying to do things with the computer. He was trying to set up a threeway ICHAT with Gail's computer. Each week we learn new things.

I just can't get over how many blessings the Lord continues to bring into my life. My brother and sisters are so dear to me and now I can see them as I talk with them. Hopefully Alysa and Lenn will be doing this soon.

Maddie's Decorating

While I was talking with Alysa this afternoon, she was waiting for Maddie to finish her creation out in their backyard. Maddie likes to decorate things. It reminded me of when she, Alysa and Jackson were here during spring break.

We were planning supper and Maddie decided she wanted to set the table and decorate it for us - as a surprise. That's when Alysa and i should have clued in, but we didn't. She wanted to use my good plates, so I got them out of the buffet and put them on the table, but didn't set one for Jackson (he is only 2 and isn't ready for good china yet).

We were told we could wait in the basement, so off we went with Jackson. I think I asked Alysa if we should be doing that, but she didn't seem too concerned.

Finally we went upstairs. When we looked at the table we were quite surpised. The first thing I noticed were my bone china teacups from the buffet (that are 40 years old). She had gotten them out of the buffet. Then next to them at each place (not Jackson's thankfully) were my good white mugs (also out of the buffet-it has glass doors, so you can see all these things in it). As I looked at the mugs, they were filled to the brim literally with water. Not another drop could you have gotten in them. I noticed Maddie adding water to the last mug(she had gotten the water from the bathroom). I know bathroom water is alright, but the thought of drinking it at supper was not too appealing.

There is a scarf that I keep on the buffet, and I set my good teapot on it, that she put on Jack's chair and another crocheted scarf she put on my chair. I had baked some chocolate chip cookies and had them in a large rubbermaid container and she had set that on the table and had put 2 and 1/2 cookies on each person's plate. Jackson immediately got up on his chair and ate his cookies- before we could stop him. She had also set a bowl of artificial fruit on the table. I'm sure there were several other things that she had done, but I can't remember them.

She was so sweet and so proud of herself and had been so careful with everything. We did praise her for the nice job she had done. The only other thing I could bring myself to say to her was to ask her if I could take a little water out of the teacup and mug so we wouldn't spill it when we lifted it to drink from them.

I just talked with Alysa and she told me what Maddie did outside. She had spread out a blanket with pillows on it, so they could lay on their backs and watch the sky and clouds. On the edge of the blanket she had put rocks so the blanket would stay down. She also had brought out some water for them (filled to the brim) to drink. Then there were three chairs together that they could used for a table for the craft that they would be doing. What a wonderful little creative 5 year old granddaughter I have. She lights up our lives and brings us great joy.

Blessed by my Son

Today I'm blessed because my Son has once again helped me get an airline ticket online. All I have to do is ask him to see if he can find a good price and "Presto", he is on the internet searching for me. Once again he has had success. This ticket will get me to Dallas to see him and his family at a very good price. I can hardly wait. He has three energetic little boys that are so fun to be with and a wonderful wife who loves her mother-in-law.

I've gone online before "by mself" and gotten a ticket, but it does take me a while to figure it all out and then find the right airline. All the while I'm a little nervous about it. I think it is "the age factor". I have to keep telling myself that it is no big deal and keep plugging away at working at the computer. I think I'm getting over the fear factor of clicking on something and everything going blank on the screen.

Isn't it great to have children that are always encouraging you to try new things and are there to help you with them. I know my body is growing old (sometimes at a rapid pace) but I don't want to be "old". So, I'll keep learning from both my children and be so thankful the Lord has given them to me.

Piano Practicing

Since I have written an incident about Alysa, I thought it would be good to write something about Lenn.

When he was 8 he started taking piano lessons. He was pretty good about practicing. Of course when you are first starting out you don't have to spend too many minutes each day at the piano and are excited about learning to play. I'm not sure how long he had been taking piano lessons when this incident happened.

Jack's parents had come up to Thessalon for a visit. Jack and his Dad had gone somewhere, leaving his Mom, Lenn and me at home. I'm not sure where Alysa was. Anyhow, it was time for Lenn to practice the piano, so I got him started at it and went upstairs to do some work. I could hear him playing and when I finished my work and came downstairs I told him he had done a great job.

I thought nothing of this until a year or two later when we were visiting Jack's Mom and Dad in Tennessee. His Mom and I were talking and she started to laugh. She reminded me of Lenn practicing the piano when they were up in Thessalon. She told me that he actually was practicing, not with his hands, but with his feet. She was sitting in the living room with him as he was playing the piano with his feet. Yes, I do have a talented son.

It's Spring When...

After 5 months of snow, blizzards, rain, ice, etc. we are experiencing spring. It lifts my spirits just to think about spring being here. Tonight I went for a walk (for a whole hour). It was about 65, just the right temperature.

Here are some of the things that I have seen the past couple of days. My neighbor out raking her lawn. There is always a scum over the yard once the snow goes, plus numberous things that have blown in your yard. The next block up there were some boys out playing street hockey. One of them had the whole goalie outfit on. They use small balls to knock around instead of a puck when they are outside. Can you imagine the damage a puck would do outside if it was used. Even though they play indoor hockey all winter, they still love it enough to play it the rest of the year outdoors.

Then there was a girl out on roller blades, two children out riding in their motorized little cars, a mother riding her bicycle with three of her children, couples out walking together, men washing their cars and the list goes on.

I had been waiting to see the first of our crocusus and tonight I saw some next to the houses. There were purple, yellow and white ones. I have also finally seen robins. Now I know that spring really is here. Also I could see tulips and daffodils coming up through the ground.

The city has even started sweeping the streets of all the sand that has been put on the road due to the snow. Everybody gets in on the action. Pretty soon the BBQ's will used and we'll sit out on our patios in the evening visiting with friends.

With Spring comes new life and that's how I feel inside when I am able to get outside and go for walks in the sunshine. As a child, I was always outdoors in the sunshine, playing with friends, roaming the woods. I seem to feel the presence of the Lord more when I'm outside (not that He isn't in the house with me). His creation is so beautiful. Psalm 19 says "The heavens declare the glory of God , the firmament showeth His handiwork..."