Tugs of the Heartstrings

Today, I stood on the porch and watched my Zach drive away to school for the last time.  I followed the car until it disappeared around the corner as a wave of emotions swept over me.  Sadness, hope, joy, love, and loneliness- how can one person feel so much at one time?  

I am sad to see the last of my babies doing something that has been part of our lives for so many years.  The rush and craziness of dragging children out of bed, getting ready for school, checking for assignments, and kisses and prayers before running out the door.  All of the disruptions of quiet mornings, oh, how I will  miss it.

I am filled with hope for his future.  He will spread his wings and fly to new adventures- ones that will mold him into the man he is to become.  Adventures that won't include me or the-man-of-my-dreams.

The joy of life envelopes me.  The funny comments, the dinner conversations, the many lacrosse games, the choir concerts, the family movie nights, the Sunday worship, the family road trips, all of it.  How blessed.

Love overwhelms me as I think of the years that have rushed by.  Not just love for this boy, but for his brothers and sister and the everyday moments that have defined me as a mother.  

And all of these emotions lead to loneliness.  Who am I without them?  If I am not reminding, and encouraging, and checking up on, and cleaning up after these babies who have grown into people, who am I?

I suppose I will find out, one day at a time.  But for now, for this day, I am going to hold in my heart the memory of that car backing down the driveway with one wonderful boy headed to the last day of school.

This Chicken's Toast

When Peter was little his favorite movie was Ghostbusters. The child LOVED this movie.  We would watch it over and over and over again.  One of the lines from the movie that he most repeated was, "this chicken's toast!".  

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, where, exactly,  was that line in the movie?  I don't remember toasted chicken.  Well, that would be because the line wasn't in the movie.  The actual line was "this chick is toast!" (referring to the floating Sigourney Weaver character.)

Okay, cute child.  But, you may ask, what does this have to do with the above picture.   

Let me share.

On Saturday, the man-of-my-dreams and I attended a funeral.   Shortly after the funeral began the MOMD's phone rang.  (On silent, of course, we WERE attending a funeral.)  He checked to see who was calling and it was our Zach.   Now, Zach knew that we were at a funeral and he is not a boy to call and chat so we decided it would be best for MOMD to slip out (fortunately, we were right by a door) and call home.   As he came back in and sat down I asked if everything was alright.  His rely?  "It is now."

It seems that the sweet boy Zach moved the recipe box from the countertop to the stove not realizing that the burner had been turned on, and walked away.  As he was going upstairs to shower he glanced back to the kitchen to see smoke and flames coming from the recipe box. Being the quick thinking child he is, he grabbed the box, dumped the recipes on the counter and put out the flames on the burning recipe box.  (He said later, "I had to save the recipes, Mom.") Disaster averted!

Now we still have a house and the treasured recipes and  except for the slightly burnt smell and the singed edges they just look like ...toast. 

100 Days of Jack

 

Yesterday Jack was 100 days old.  This is a big day for a young man with Korean ancestry.  Tradition calls for a photo session and this little boy was so sweet.  He never complained.  He just endured his Grandma taking picture after picture.   

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)

You have got to see this. Dreams come true!

Death of a Fly

This morning I walked into my bathroom and there on my floor was a dead fly.  Now, this is unusual, not because I don't have flies in my house, but because I don't ever recall finding one on my bathroom floor...especially in April.   I remembered, as I recovered from my surprise, that I had seen this fly come in the back door on Sunday while the boys were outside tossing the lacrosse ball. Now, you ask, how do I know that it was this particular fly?  Come on, it wasn't the cute Easter outfit it had on, it's April.  We just don't have that many flies and anyway, I had seen it flying around the house on Monday and Tuesday.   I know that it wasn't there last night when I washed my face, for heaven's sake, I would have stepped on it.  For some reason, it was there, dead on my bathroom floor.  Okay, you may say that it simply had lived all of its days here on the earth but nope, I think I know exactly what happened.   I declare that that fly took one look out the window this morning and when it saw the snow falling, it simply laid on its side and gave up.

         

I know just how it felt.

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

Take a minute and let this wash over you.

Moments to Remember

How we rely on our techincal equipment to work!  I haven't posted anything for so long because my beloved imac has refused to allow the usb ports to work and I can't download any pictures.  I have an appointment with the Genius Bar at Apple today and I just hope that my pal can be repaired...and repaired quickly.  

So much has happened in the past few weeks.  We had the blessing of having my mom, Mamaw to the kids, here with us for about 6 weeks.  What a gentleness she brings to our home.  The boys are so tender with her and everyone loves to be around her. She left on Saturday and we are missing her.   Our little dog, Scout, is in withdrawals.  She got lots of attention from Mamaw and is missing her cuddle time.  Scout has followed me around for the last 3 days and even at this moment is insistent that she sit in my lap with her head resting on my arm as I try to type.  Mom says that she is getting too old to come back out for another visit, but none of us are willing to accept that decision.  We will cross our fingers for another visit this summer!

We also had a fun spring break at the cabin with a ton of snow.  I am not sure spring will ever come to Pine Tree, Utah.  (A little homage to White Christmas!)  It was delightful to have all of the kids there with little baby Jack at the cabin for the first time.  We built fires, snow forts, and puzzles.  We played games and watched movies and slept in late.  We broke, and then repaired a vacuum cleaner (actually, I repaired the vacuum- the man of my dreams had gone to the valley to work) and broke and prayed over a dryer.  (Little miracle there-- it now works and we can't explain it.)  We ate lots of food and did a lot of dishes and were really sad to have to return to the world of responsibility. 

 

Last weekend was General Conference for our church.  What a privilege it is to feast on the words of men and women called of God.  We felt inspired and uplifted and motivated to be more faithful, more temple-going, more hopeful, and more Christ-like.