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Our Daily Thread 5-9-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1671 Thomas “Captain” Blood stole the crown jewels from the Tower of London.

In 1825 the Chatham Theatre opened in New York City. It was the first gas-lit theater in America.

In 1930 a starting gate was used to start a Triple Crown race for the first time ever.

In 1961 Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles set a major league baseball record when he hit a grand slam home run in two consecutive innings. The game was against the Minnesota Twins.

And in 1974 the House Judiciary Committee began formal hearings on the Nixon impeachment.

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Quote of the day

“Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.”

Charles H. Spurgeon

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Today Mr. Joel has a birthday. So young Billy…

And older Billy.

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Anyone have a QoD?

57 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-9-13”

  4. It is a mystery isn’t it Chas? Billy Joel, wow. We don’t have an “oldies” station anymore. Several weeks ago when we went to Tuscaloosa there was an oldies station and I heard all sorts of music I hadn’t heard in so long.
    AJ, did you read my post yesterday regarding exercise?

    I begin interviewing another virtual assistant today. I have read the resume’s. I only have two to choose from.

    Question fo the Day:
    Several people have posted on FB about Mother’s Day and church services. Some are sensitive because they are infertile, some because they never had the opportunity to be mothers, some because of problem children, some because they never had a good relationship with their own mothers.
    I didn’t have a good relationship with my own mother, but throughout life I found women to mother and mentor me. I went through infertility and cried and cried because God gave children to people who would abuse them but wouldn’t give one to me. Now it has come full circle and my own Precious Child is angry with me and acting out…STILL I have plans for Mother’s Day. I asked Mr. P for two new beach chairs so we will have them when we go to the beach. I have plans for the three of us to go to lunch with my friend D and her husband, two daughters, and granddaughter. My own mother might not have been the best but she gave me life. I might not be the best but I fought to get what I wanted.
    KBells has shared her own Mother’s Day story with us before which ALWAYS makes me tear up when she posts it. (If you don’t know it ask her–Oh I will, KBELLS tell us once again about that special Mother’s Day 10 years ago.)

    SO FINALLY the question. What are your thoughts and memories on Mother’s Day?

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  6. Isn’t it a sign that you are getting old when you start hearing your favorite music on the “Oldies” station. It’s at least a sign that you should start actin like a grown up.

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  7. Saw Ironman 3. The thing I liked best about it is that Tony Stark went to the South and the people weren’t portrayed as backward idiots. Also Ben Kingsley was awesome.

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  10. There were two very memorable Mother’s Days for me. It is 20 years today since the first of those two.

    On May 9, 1993, I sat in church on Mother’s Day, six days past my due date with 2nd Arrow. I was very emotional and wishing she had already been born. I already had a 3-year old, but I really wanted a baby to hold on that day.

    I sat through more than half the service, feeling sorry for myself. Then our pastor began praying, and everything changed. He offered up Mother’s Day prayers for women who were struggling with infertility and had not been blessed with children yet. He also prayed for women who were regretting past abortions.

    I was reduced to tears. How could I have been so selfish, thinking of my own little issues, when other women were enduring the heavy weight of infertility or past abortion?

    Did that ever give me perspective.

    Five days later, on May 14, the 10th anniversary of the day my husband and I met, 2nd Arrow arrived. And that date would have further significance in the future…

    Fast forward 7 years and some months. We were at that time the parents of three children, and were very blessed to learn sometime in August or September that 4th Arrow was on the way. My due date with her was 12 years ago today, May 9, 2001.

    When 2nd Arrow learned that the baby was due five days before her birthday, she told me “Mom, you’ve GOT to have that baby on my birthday!”

    Fast forward again to May 13, 2001, the day before 2nd Arrow’s eighth birthday. It was Mother’s Day, and my very pregnant self (past my due date again) sat on a kitchen chair in my MIL’s kitchen, when I felt this strange ping and a little moisture. 😉

    Yes, my water had broken, and sometime between about 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. on Mother’s Day, labor started.

    The next morning, 4th Arrow arrived, and 2nd Arrow got herself a new baby sister on her birthday!

    So…I guess that second story was more of a day-after-Mother’s-Day story, but those two Mother’s Days were very memorable for me, being so close to receiving the blessing of another little arrow.

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  11. For several years Mother’s Day was a bit painful for me. I didn’t want to hear a sermon on it, since I wanted children so badly and my relationship with my mom was OK, but hardly all sweet and cuddly. So I volunteered in the church nursery on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. I wasn’t on the official schedule at all, but we had multiple people in the nursery on any given Sunday and I was a known member of the church. So on those two Sundays, I’d simply show up at the nursery and tell the workers that I didn’t want to be in the service that day, and anyone who did want to be could go and I’d take her place. More than once I replaced a very happy woman, who was so disappointed she had to be in the nursery on her first Mother’s Day or her husband’s first Father’s Day. It was a win-win. My pastor at the time actually did a good job of also mentioning that some women don’t have biological children, but they love other people’s children (and that was definitely true of me; I was involved in programs with the church children and also had an open-door policy for neighborhood children, some of whom were also church children). But I still just didn’t want the reminder. In those days, sometimes I’d sit in church and watch a parent with a baby or toddler, and watch and enjoy the sight . . . but then at some point it would be so sweet that I couldn’t bear it, and I’d have to turn away and blink back tears. I learned to turn away before it got to that point.

    The year I had a pair of sisters (twice) as foster children, the first time they were with me they left my house quickly (little warning to me) just a few days before Mother’s Day.

    But last year my older stepdaughter called me and wished me a Happy Mother’s Day, and that meant a lot to me, partly because she’d taken the effort and partly because I know that she is (like I am, and used to be more so) shy about using the phone. So it was just a brief call, but it moved me to tears.

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  12. I’ve thought for years about the idea of marrying a widower with children, and it was an attractive thought. Honestly part of the appeal when my now husband first contacted me was that his photo included two teen daughters who looked like such sweet girls (my friends all said the same thing about the photo–and truly they are). But I’d actually pictured “widower with children” meaning fairly young children, maybe four and six or six, eight, and ten. I’d pictured reading bedtime stories, buying children’s clothes, and so forth. (And not all “sweetness and light” daydreams–I’ve had way too much experience with children for that. I’ve held hair for a girl who’s vomiting, had the girl in the bunk above me at camp wet her bed and my pillow, dealt with lice on foster children and on myself, and so on.)

    I knew that, just as with foster children, a stepmom has to “play the role” of mom but with no expectation that the children see her that way. (They do have to treat her with respect, of course.) And I also knew that if you can truly guard your heart with no such expectations, that it would be easier for the children to grow to love you. I’d been told, even before I met my hubby, that I’d make a good stepmother. In fact, my sister once told me that she and my mom had discussed that a widower with kids would be an excellent match for me (this was when I was still young enough to bear my own children), and I told her I’d thought the same thing. Some things are bittersweet–family photos show little girls I never met. They’re long past wanting stories at bedtime (or even having bedtimes). I got their young adulthood, not their childhood. But I have two precious young adult daughters, and they love me. And someday, Lord willing, I’ll have grandkids–not step-grandkids.

    And five years ago I had gradually come to accept that if I were married with kids, my own children would be growing up. My peers had preteens and teenagers, not little children. So I accepted that I’d simply missed that stage of life, and came to terms with it. But I didn’t even consider that I might “get in on” the next couple of stages–the stage with young adult children, and then the grandchildren stage. I’ve always wanted to be a mom, but somehow I hardly ever even considered grandchildren . . . so it’s like God handed back the possibility of a dream I’d never even thought to dream. It may be only a dream for several years before it’s reality, or it might somehow never be reality. But I do now have that dream.

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  13. Elvera had a miscarriage on Mother’s Day in 1962. She was about 3-4 months along and no one knew she was pregnant except us and my parents. And her doctor.
    A few years ago, Chuck’s pastor had his wife preach the mother’s day sermon. She did a fine job.

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  14. Mother’s Day ten years I almost walked out of the service because again just like the last seven, I had to sit there broken-hearted as all the mothers stood to be honored. But that morning my mother’s cousin and roommate had mentioned that her pastor’s foster child (a 4 month old crack baby) was coming up for adoption. It seemed like a long shot but we decided to call around. We talked to the pastor then called our adoption agent. She told us what we suspected. There was a long list of people who wanted the foster child and we wold be on the bottom. But she said, Another child had been born that the mother was putting up for adoptions. A two day old baby boy. We’re we interested. Uh yes. She put us on the list she would show to the birth mother. We waited all that day for her to call us at work. Just on the chance that we were chosen, I called my mother to see about getting my sister’s old baby furniture moved to our house. As I was on the phone, Hubby walked in and announces, “She picked us. We have a baby. I’m going home.” I did some wishful calculations and figured out that there was a chance that the birth mother was in labor during that awful Mother’s Day service.

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  15. Wow, Chas, a woman preaching! What’s the world coming to?

    Next Sunday is sort of just May 12th to me with the added bonus of gifts and not cooking dinner. My real mother’s day is any time we have all seven of our kids together laughing and enjoying each other. Now with grandkids, which is even better. Our oldest arrow 😉 and SIL are moving home to Cali in August so that prospect grows brighter for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Third daughter and SIL still live six hours away in the Sierras.

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  17. Again, I teared up.

    Cheryl, I married a man who was expecting his first grandchild. Trust me, it is better. You can hold them as much as you want. Rock them, cuddle them, and when you have them completely spoiled you hand them back to their parents and go home to a full night’s sleep. 😉

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  20. But you don’t rally spoil them. They soon learn what they can do at each place. They knew that eating at Nana’s house was always at the counter. And that at our house, we could go to the park. It was different at the other house. They easily adjust to location.

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  23. I generally don’t like secular “holiday” sermons and am grateful we’re a church that doesn’t succumb. (I’ve been in past churches that did and, frankly, found that more often than not it was a sure way to get a message to stray from the gospel 😦 ) And days like Mother’s Day & Father’s Day, seem to bring their share of angst to vast numbers of us for all sorts of reasons, no?

    The intent is good, but unless we understand the gospel, it can wind up making us feel sad, guilty, frustrated, you name it, mothers/fathers or not mothers or fathers alike.

    Elyse Fitzpatrick (Christian author and counselor) has had some interesting posts about it all this week on her site & on FB:

    http://theresurgence.com/2013/05/08/happy-daughter-s-day

    Here are a couple of her posts (contrasting the law — what God requires of us — and the gospel, what Christ provides for us since we’re unable to perfectly keep the law). More important than anything for us women is to know we are daughters by adoption:

    “Dear Pastor Friends: If you want to do something to honor mothers in your congregation, please don’t give them more law…especially about being a Proverbs 31 woman. Please, please tell them they are loved, forgiven and righteous because of the work of the one Man who lived perfectly and died shamefully for them. Don’t you think they need a little good news?”

    “It seems to me that the reason Mother’s Day is so hard for so many of us (even those of us who have good relationships with mothers and children) is because Mother’s Day is a sort of Law: Be a good mother and you’ll be appreciated (and get good things). And the Law (whether God’s or Hallmark’s) always produces either pride or despair in us. “Be a good mother and you’ll be appreciated” will produce pride and anger if we think we’re doing good but no one appreciates us. On the other hand “Be a good mother and you’ll be appreciated” will produce despair in those of us who know we fail (and anger at others who don’t appreciate how hard we try.)
    What’s the answer? Rejoice in the fact that we are His beloved daughters in whom He is well pleased.”

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  24. And this from her longer piece:

    “Mother’s Day angst sounds like this: I wish I were a mother. I wish I were a better mother. I wish I loved my mother. I wish my mother loved me. I wish my mom were still alive. I wish I hadn’t aborted that child. I wish I could have children. I wish I knew who my mother was. I wish I hadn’t given my baby away. I wish my children loved me. I wish they would write. I wish they were still alive.”

    Good old Hallmark. 😉 What would we do without them?

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  25. Kim, last week we had dinner with my sister-in-law (my brother was out of town), and my oldest niece and her three children. (Her husband was working late.) The youngest is a boy I hadn’t met yet, 10 weeks old. I got to hold him most of the evening, even feed him his bottle. I’m sure that being a grandmother is a touch more special than being a grand-aunt . . . but there is something super special about holding the child of a young woman you held as a baby when you were 13. That “next generation” thing is profound. And the six-year-old asks her mom about when she’ll see us again, so even though we don’t see them often there is a relationship there. I saw the oldest when she was only an hour or two old, and the next at about two weeks, so this baby was practically an old man by the time I had to wait more than two months to hold him. . . . And I still have one grandnephew I haven’t met yet.

    Our girls have been blessed to live all their lives in the same town with both sets of grandparents, as well as all the aunts and uncles here or very close. I met my aunts and uncles once or twice each, maybe one I saw three or four times, while growing up, and I am sure I have first cousins on my dad’s side I’ve never met. I really hope that as the girls marry and have families, that they live close enough that we can be a real part of their lives (even if that’s not seeing them every month).

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  26. My wife was sure she would never have children of her own. She rarely mentioned it, but I knew she was disappointed. She was resigned to the fact that it wasn’t gonna happen even though it’s what she always wanted. But at 36 she finally did. 🙂

    And I am thankful for that. She’s a great Mom. My daughter is very lucky. So am I. 🙂

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  27. Kim,

    Yes, I did. I’ve spent several months in pool therapy, for all my many ailments. It works well. Low impact. I especially liked it in the winter. It would be 10 degrees outside, and 70 in the pool. 🙂

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  28. We don’t have grandchildren yet, but there are several grandnieces and grandnephews on my husband’s side of the family. They all live in a different state than we do, so we don’t see them often, but it was pretty neat that one of my nieces was pregnant with her first when I was expecting 5th Arrow (our sons were born about 7 weeks apart) and another niece was expecting her first when I was expecting 6th Arrow. My due date was five days before hers, and my daughter was born five days before her daughter.

    I always thought it would be neat to be pregnant at the same time as a daughter or daughter-in-law, but that will probably not happen considering my age and my arrows’ unmarried status. So I was very blessed that it did happen with two of my nieces.

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  29. Donna, your FB post was one of the ones that led me to my post today. I also sent the link to my priest. The Episcopal/Anglican church follows the Liturgical Calendar so there isn’t as much wandering off into secular holidays. This is sometimes bad, like when Columbine happened a father asked the priest to say something about it. The priest refused. That family never came back to church.

    I now have three grown stepsons. Two I have met. One is anti-social and dealing with PTSD. The other doesn’t have much to do with me. I am loving and welcoming when I see him. I have told him numerous times that he is always welcome. He is the baby and used to his father’s undivided attention. I have become more stand-offish. The middle son didn’t speak to his father from last November until around midnight this past Saturday. He had un-friended me on FB. He told his father I made him uncomfortable. I have never met him…only through FB. Mr P. told me I could friend request him again. I told him I was a little bruised and battered by my own child I really didn’t want to put myself out there to be bruised and battered by anyone else.

    Not exactly the rosy picture I had imagined. My own mother was damaged by her mother. She became an alcoholic (which I mostly blame on my grandmother) so she and I didn’t have the best relationship. My stepmother loved me until I didn’t have a choice but to love her back. Five years after my father’s death, I still talk to her and she still tells me she loves me. That is what I wanted to offer Mr P’s boys–especially the two whose mother walked away.

    Motherhood is filled with angst. All anyone can do is muddle through and hope and pray for the best.

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  30. Neat story at 11:35, AJ. 🙂

    One of my sisters was convinced she would never have a baby either. She told another of our sisters at one point that if God was going to give her a baby, He would have already done so. She did eventually have a child — at the age of 39. The ironic thing is that the sister she said the above statement to is the one who never bore a child. She miscarried once, and has adopted four children.

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  31. 6 Arrows, my sister and my oldest niece were once pregnant at the same time, due about a week apart . . . and my sister miscarried at three months. It was very, very hard on my sister. She wasn’t sure whether she’d have any more children (she did have one more), and the presence of another child the same age seemed almost a personal affront. Anyway, I think I’d be a bit nervous if I were pregnant at the same time as a younger relative.

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  32. Crown Jewels stolen in 1674 – Now, why don’t they make a heist movie of that – in the style of Ocean’s Eleven, etc.? It would be pretty entertaining, with all the characters wearing periwigs and breeches.

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  33. Reading everyone’s comments about motherhood today made me realize that I’m getting old. Everywhere I go I find myself watching babies and wishing one or both of my grandchildren would get around to marrying and giving me a great-grandchild. 😉

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  35. Kim’s QoD: Mother’s Day has always been a take it or leave it kind of holiday for me. At home, sometimes we would remember to do something for Mom and sometimes we would forget – she didn’t care, as our love for her was and is obvious all the year. The only time the day bothered me was last year, when our church handed out single carnations to the mothers. Now, I don’t care for carnations and the church has been doing this for years, so it wasn’t that which bothered me. No, it was because they decided to include me and other single young women in the handout. Getting handed a carnation seemed to gloss over the reality that I was unmarried and childless. I would love to be married and have children and it hurts deeply that it hasn’t happened yet; but I keep on living my life as the Lord lays it out and don’t waste time envying others their card and carnations. It is good for a church to honour motherhood and teach on the subject, but I would prefer it to be more spontaneous and not limited to a specific time each year.

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  36. I might add that a more natural place to emphasize the wonder of motherhood would be during celebrations of the Incarnation. All those Scripture passages, ie. the seed of the woman in Genesis, Gabriel’s salutation, Mary’s Magnificat, etc. point to the incredible way that God used His design for women as the bearers of children, although childbirth had to be cursed with pain, as the way to bring salvation to mankind.

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  38. Well said, roscuro (re the incarnation); ultimately it’s not all about us. 😉

    And Kim, “not exactly the rosy picture I had imagined.” Um, I suspect that is somewhat of a universal truth for all us. 🙂

    But life is good, God is very good. No matter what our circumstances, disappointments, let-downs. I often think of how hard Mother’s Day is for those who are infertile — or, more so , for those who lost children either through miscarriages or in childhood through illness, accident, etc.

    I pretty much bypass Mother’s Day these days (other than to express greetings to the moms I know and to thank God for the mom I had for so many years). The day is just not very relevant for me at this point — but that’s not a bad thing. I’ve never been a particular fan of Hallmark days anyway. 😉 I suspect they cause more angst and discontent than cheer for too many.

    And as you all know, however, I am all about Christmas. Which, by the way, is coming soon. 😀 Really. It is.

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  39. Beating a dead horse, sorry. But I had to smile (and whisper an amen) again at Fitzpatrick’s post today regarding the practice of “Mother’s Day sermons” in our churches:

    “Could we please stop pretending that everything about motherhood is wonderful? I love my mother and my children and grandchildren but this worship of my work is not what I need on Sunday.
    Let’s worship Christ’s work for us: He lived as a Son with a mother and he honored her from the cross. Then he died for her sin and rose for her justification…And for ours too.
    Really…enough of this silliness! Let’s believe that he’s really all we need and then get about the business of washing feet, shall we?”

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  40. solar pancake, I don’t think anyone on here yet has said “Yay for Mother’s Day sermons,” so you aren’t being a wet blanket. Some are against them for theological reasons (count me into that camp–I don’t think it would be wrong to exegete the passage on Hannah’s desire for children or something of the sort, but I don’t think it is the “best” thing to focus on manmade holidays–and certainly to give some sort of speech on “the beauty of motherhood”). Others think such a focus causes pain to too many.

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  41. Real (at 12:50), your comment reminded me of one time hubby and I were watching a movie set in England in the 18th century. After about five minutes of a ballroom scene, he said, “I sure am glad we won that war.”

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  43. Cheryl @ 11:58:20, oh that must have been so hard for your sister. You know, I never really thought while I was pregnant at the same time as my nieces (with my 5th and 6th arrows) about what it would be like if I (or they) lost the babies. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it, either, as I had had a miscarriage before my pregnancy with 5th Arrow, and another one between 5th and 6th Arrows.

    I did hope and pray recently, though, when two other nieces of mine who are sisters and were pregnant at the same time with their first babies, that both of them would have healthy pregnancies. Their due dates were about six weeks apart, and they’ve both now given birth to healthy babies and see each other regularly, as they both live in the same metropolitan area. I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been if something had gone wrong with one of them. Their mom had had a miscarriage in her first pregnancy, and that was on my mind when my nieces were pregnant.

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  44. Mother’s Day can be tough on a children’s Sunday School teacher who does not always know what the situation is with children in the class.

    I have a Mother’s Day Rose bush given to us by my MIL (now deceased). She and I were not always on the best of terms so I guess it fits—smells sweet but watch out for those thorns! I really do like the bush and usually bring a few clippings in to enjoy in the house.

    Our family did not ever do much to celebrate such holidays so it is not a big deal to me. I do enjoy being recognized during the church service, but I am also aware of how that recognition may be painful for those who long to be mothers. I guess I think of the recognition as being more for the great effort and all the work it takes to raise a child rather than the recognition being just for being blessed with having gone through child birth or adoption, etc. At work do people celebrate the Secretary on Secretary’s Day because she is titled “Secretary” or is it to say thank you for all the hard work she does? A lot of the work mothers do gets no thanks. It is sweet for church to consider that and say thanks to moms when others don’t.

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  45. Wow. I just interviewed one of the fastest-talking people I’ve ever met. It was a phone interview w/the metro bike plan guru and I’m pretty fast on the computer, but I actually had to ask him to slow down at one point (I don’t think I’ve ever had to do that with anyone before, I just adjust my typing speed and concentrate a bit more, use a few dot-dot-dots in the final quotes…).

    Probably didn’t help that he was calling me in between other appointments, but sheesh. 🙂 How is that even physically possible to talk as fast as he did??

    We arranged to talk tomorrow morning (his off day, which is very nice of him) when he has more time. My poor fingers! I’ll have to drink some extra coffee tomorrow.

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  48. The sun is out…for about 5 minutes, then that big ol’ dark cloud is going to spill over something….maybe rain, maybe grapple, maybe some more snow…yep…snow on the ground when we awakened this morning…it melted quickly…but…well…you know…
    Thanks for your sharing kbells…a truly lovely accounting of how our Lord is working when we are unaware…
    I am one of those who would rather not hear the Mother’s day sermons (our RPCNA church does not “do” holidays)…I don’t like Mother’s day…I do send my Mom flowers (she makes darn certain that we gush over her and send her stuff…or else!…she says she deserves it all!…and if we don’t do for her what she believes we should…well Lord have mercy the whole world is going to hear about it!)…I love my Mom…and I honor her….but oh the expectations…and I tell my kids not to make a deal out of it because I know they focus on my failures and not on what I did right…I don’t believe any of them feel I did anything right…did I mention I don’t like Mother’s day?

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  49. Since Mom’s birthday was in May, she always told us not to bother with Mother’s Day (besides, we didn’t get allowances and had practically no spending money), and we didn’t. When I was an adult, I realized that it wasn’t that she didn’t like the idea of Mother’s Day, it was just that it seemed unrealistic to expect both. So I started calling her for Mother’s Day, sometimes sending her a card or a gift. One time I sent gift cards to Mom and to a woman who was sort of a mentor to me at the time, and by what my friend said about hers it sounded like it was possible the company mixed up the messages on the gift cards. I didn’t dare ask Mom about it, since it would have bothered her to have me honor another woman for Mother’s Day. (MJy friend was kind of cagey when I got worried and asked more about the note on hers, so it was a hunch but her reaction told me it was likely the case.)

    My church in Nashville did a great job with Mother’s Day. We had many childless married couples (about a third of the couples, I think), and a few singles, and they didn’t want to add to anyone’s pain. So they honored “mothers and covenant mothers,” recognizing that all of us were responsible for each other’s children, and that many of the single or childless women were actually very involved in children’s lives. They didn’t focus on Mother’s Day for a sermon, but they had a really fancy breakfast cooked by the men and served by the men and children, all under the direction of one of our members who was a chef.

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  50. We decided to go for a walk tonight on the pier. When we got there cars were everywhere. Turns out the local high school jazz band was having a concert. Quite the lagniappe.

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  51. nancyjill, that’s hard. Even if that’s true, they’ll figure it out (all the good stuff) someday. 🙂

    I remember how mad my mom was when her sister’s grown sons didn’t call her one Mother’s Day when she was staying with us late in her life. The next time one of the kids called (needing some info for some form he was filling out) my mom really ripped into him. I suspect he was sorry he called!

    Kim, a walk on the pier sounds nice (and I think I saw that on FB, didn’t I?? 🙂 )

    We are foregoing our evening class at church this Sunday in lieu of Mother’s Day – which caused our pastor to wryly note that we don’t do that on Father’s Day … 🙂

    Trash night tonight, the dog walk is also still on the agenda. And tomorrow I’ve got a load of work to do on a new regional bike lane story to run this weekend. It seemed so possible to do in such a short time when I had the brilliant idea this morning.

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  52. Well, the dog walk was interesting, it’s yellow outside — lots of cloud cover (with sprinkles). I think there may be some kind of eclipse going on or something, everything was tinged with the oddest wash of color …

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  53. Well just when the words come out…I must eat some of them. My darling daughter Hannah surprised me with a beautiful Azalea ,along with the sweetest Mother’s Day card…made me cry…she’s the last one at home…we spoil her a bit…but she is a blessing…
    My son never calls…he did give me a card once..that was last year…when I was visiting in the area where he lives…I think his wife made him do it…
    My daughter here tries to do something…give me flowers or something…but, I think she feels obligated…I know she loves me..it’s just those times when the kids point out what they feel was “wrong” that we did as they grew up…it has a way of stabbing the heart..
    Now the daughter who lives in Pasadena and has given us a run for our money as we tried to keep her alive as a teenager…well, she will most likely call and thank me for hanging in there with her….

    Good for your Mom, Donna…sometimes kids need a little “reminding”…Aunties are good for that…like I tell my baby sister…”get it worked out before it’s too late”….

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  54. Donna, sounds interesting! I love it when the sky captures our attention! We had a beautiful sunset tonight after the rain clouds moved on out…it was a bright orange…we,too, had a lovely walk and got a few sprinkles coming from somewhere! Isn’t it wonderful to walk after a rain…so fresh…and here at least…smells of fresh pine!

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  55. It was a very nice walk, almost surreal at times with the strange coloring enveloping everything.

    As it was getting darker and we were getting close to home, we walked by one house where a young girl was in the driveway practicing twirling a flaming baton which only added to the odd landscape.

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  56. Funny. But not. 🙂

    Saw this on Twitter tonight: “The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.” —Edward, Duke of Windsor

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