Mother's Many Hands

Wonderful Mother

God made a wonderful mother,
A mother who never grows old;
He made her smile of the sunshine,
And He moulded her heart of pure gold;
In her eyes He placed bright shining stars,
In her cheeks fair roses you see;
God made a wonderful mother,
And He gave that dear mother to me.
-- Pat O'Rielly

On this special day, I don't really have an adequate way to express all that my mom is and all that she does. Making a list didn't seem adequate. A picture just wouldn't have said it all. So I'm taking a shot with some poetry (at least I think this is poetry). I am not a poet, but Mom, I hope you can feel all I was feeling as I was writing it. I love you.

My Mother's Many Hands

Soft hands stroking my face as I lay in your lap.
Playful hands holding mine jumping on grandpa's trampoline. Pushing me high in the swing and I am hearing your wonderful laughter.
Musical hands directing me and 100 other elementary students singing in the choir. I'm so proud that it's my mom up there leading us with her beautiful voice and making it fun.
Busy hands cleaning the floors, the bathrooms, making another nutritious meal to eat, driving me and the rest of the bunch all over the world.
Faithful hands clasped together as you kneel in prayer. I'm watching from the doorway waiting to talk to you. And I wait and I watch as you commune with God.
Loving hands comforting me when things don't go exactly the way I had hoped and then softly directing me to look in another direction.
Selfless hands rushing to my side for the arrival of a new baby. Caring for me and my precious family. Bathing, cleaning, cooking, never sleeping enough.
Beautiful hands that are just the right size. Matching the beautifully done hair, the beautiful face and always beautifully-put-together clothes. Friends constantly reminding me how beautiful you are.
Curious hands turning page after page as you continue to read and learn and share.
Giving hands hugging your friends, helping those in need, sending a special package.

Watching my own hands stroking the face of my little girl as she lays in my lap, I marvel at your wonderful hands and hope that mine are learning from your example. I love you Mom!!

My Mom

My mom left yesterday. She got here Thursday the 4th and immediately went to work cooking, cleaning, organizing, playing with and watching Andrew and Natalie, grocery shopping, and anything else you can think of. It really was the easiest 10 days I've had for as long as I can remember. I was able to just dote on and enjoy little James and Natalie and Andrew were happy and entertained. It didn't matter if I was up during the night because not only could I take a nap or sleep in if I needed to, but I also could run on less sleep when someone else was seeing to dinner and helping with the other kids. She helped get the game room organized, she cleaned out the pantry, she put up my fall decorations. Really, you name it, she probably did it. And all that with a limp and a big boot on one foot. She has a pulled tendon, maybe a bone spur and I could tell it hurt. But she wouldn't think about taking it easy. She wanted to make sure everything was easier for me. (Andrew was very concerned about the boot. She couldn't kneel for family prayer with it on so he was relieved when she didn't have it on the next night and could kneel down. He also told her, "We don't wear boots to church" and so he was glad she didn't wear the boot to church.)

So this post is a tribute to my mom. What a beautiful, lovely, selfless person. I know she would do anything for me--for any of her kids--or for anyone. I'm so lucky to belong to her. She is a great example of motherhood, service and friendship. Thank you, thank you, thank you mom for everything. And thanks to dad for being on his own for 10 days and for being so supportive of her coming to help!

The kids keep asking me where grandma is. On the way home from the airport Natalie must have asked me 15 times, "where gma go?" Andrew fell asleep on the way to the airport and when he woke up--after we had dropped her off--the first thing he asked in his sleepy voice was, "Where's granma?" He was pointing to the seats around the table last night and said, "that's my chair, that's daddy's chair, that's mommy's chair, and that's granma's chair." Tonight Natalie said, "I wanna sit in gma's chair." While she was here, only grandma could read stories to Andrew at night and tuck him in. He loved her to tickle his back as he fell asleep. And they would negotiate how many books she would read. She would start at 2 or 3, he would start at 10 and they would always agree on 5. We all miss her.

IKEA in the Camry

My mom and I headed out Saturday night to run a few errands. Our last stop was IKEA. My mom has been helping me get my game room organized (finally!) and we needed to get a bookshelf from IKEA to finish the project up. First of all, getting out of the store with all the stuff was quite the feat. We had 12 baskets on a big trolley, the stroller with the baby, and another big trolley with 3 very large and very heavy boxes containing the pieces of the bookshelf. The trolleys refused to go in a straight line and so we were weaving all over the place. We originally thought we could buy it and then come pick it up later, given that we were driving John's Camry. But by the time we were buying the stuff it seemed like such a hassle to come back and get it another day and they have pictures all over showing how easy it is to put the stuff on the top of your car...

So we got the stuff outside, I pulled the car up to the pick-up spot and a guy that works there who looked like he was about 12 came over and offered to help us get the stuff into our car. I'm sure he was looking at our 2 full trolleys and the small 4-door sedan and wondering what we were thinking. We managed to get the two thinner boxes in the trunk by pushing them through to the back seat and a few boxes fit into the trunk and a few more into the back seat (poor James was surrounded). Then the IKEA helper suggests that we put the big box on the roof. Doesn't sound too bad, but he puts these cardboard things up there and then says my mom and I have to tie it securely to the car. He can't help because of liability.

We just looked at each other--we don't know how to tie knots! I'm sure the guys working there were taking bets as to whether we would make it home with our purchase intact. So we did our best and tied the cardboard pieces to the car and then put the big box on top of those and tied the box to the car. Once that was done we had to load my mom and the rest of the baskets into the front passenger seat. I couldn't even see her and she was laughing--I could only see one of the baskets shaking every time she laughed.

By this time it was almost 10pm, James was hungry, I was tired and we had to take the back roads home. But that box never moved ;-) The bookshelf is now set up in the game room--it was worth it.

My only regret is not getting a picture of my mom.