A Happy Mother's Day for me

What a happy Mother's Day for me.  I woke up early - 6:30 am - and worked on the Relief Society presentation for today.  I'm in our ward Relief Society presidency, and I'm in charge of Sunday instruction.  We chose to do a panel and have a group discussion instead of a lesson.  We asked three Sisters in the ward to be on the panel - Melanie, Maria and Kim - and I asked them to read Sheri Dew's talk "Are We Not All Mothers" and Pres. Monson's talk from last fall "Charity Never Faileth".  After reading a couple of quotes from Sis. Dew's talk, I asked the following questions:
Do you have any experience with a woman who "mothered" you, other than your own mother?
What keeps us from nurturing?
What worldly views have you run into that degrade motherhood?
Just those three questions took up the whole time.  There were some very tender, sweet comments made.  The Spirit was present in large supply, and I was very grateful.  One comment was made by Chelsea, a new sister in the ward, who related that she had been a foster mother to many teenage boys.  One of the lessons she learned is that no matter what they had been through with their mothers, the boys always loved their own mother.  One of the other comments that was made was by Maria relating to us what she had heard Jayne Clayson say in a Time Out for Women.  Clayson said that women would not take stay-at-home mothers seriously until they took themselves seriously, meaning that they needed to stop apologizing and making excuses, and saying, "I'm just a Mom".  I can tell you one thing - I never said that, or felt that I should apologize for it.  I think that is because I knew I could choose differently, and that I had chosen - literally - to be at home instead of in the work place.  At first it was a struggle for me, but when I finally came to the realization, and deep assurance, that no one could replace me as the mother of my children - NO ONE, not even Bruce could do what I could do for them and be for them - then I felt that I had a purpose, and that I was doing the most important thing I could be doing, bar none.  That was a huge life-changer for me, and I've been blessed by that knowledge and assurance.  I'm also grateful to know that my Savior Jesus Christ has offered the Atonement to me as a gift, and this makes all sacrifice, love, work - everything I do as a Mother have meaning and hope.

I went back to sleep after awhile, and about 10 am, Joseph and Peter came in to escort me to the kitchen table.  They each offered me an arm, and I walked into the clean kitchen with a beautifully set table and Love One Another from Joyspring II, by Kurt Bestor playing.  I had the "You are special today" red plate, a big glass of orange juice, NingXia Red and chia seed on the side, and Libby poured me a glass of hot chocolate.  At my feet was the foot massager, and there were a dozen pink roses in a vase from Bruce.  The kids wrote me a poster with an acrostic poem on it.  L - lovely, O - outstanding, R - Reverent, E - Excellent, N - Never-failing, A - Awesome (at making smoothies).  Isn't that cute!  Bruce made the standard eggs, hashbrowns and bacon, and Jesse made crepes as well.  I'm telling you - I got the royal treatment!!  They even put a picture of Josh in his place on the table.  :)

I spoke to Josh this afternoon.  He is over with Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Angie and her kids.  I told my Mother, "You are still mothering for me!"

Bruce had a fun time fishing the last two days.  They went up into WA state to fish on the Columbia river.  He said it drizzled the whole time and reminded him so much of Seattle with the low-lying clouds and the beautiful evergreen trees.  The trip cost him over $200 and he came home with one salmon fillet.  That is one expensive salmon!!  But he went with great friends, so he came home with more than just a fillet of salmon - good memories were involved also.  :)

I have been enjoying my Kindness Foot Zone Therapy class.  Wow - have I learned a lot!  I also did the Farmer's Market in our town yesterday, and had fun doing that with Karen, my friend and upline.

Soccer is over!  Whew - we made it through another outdoor season.  Luckily, Bruce and Joseph are still playing indoor, because I LOVE going to their games.  I want them to just keep playing year round.

It has finally started to warm up around here.  It doesn't fully seem like spring to me until it starts to warm up.

I have been buying Thrive freeze-dried Food Storage from Shelf-Reliance through my sister Angie.   I sent a can of Strawberries with Josh for school, and we opened up a can recently for Bruce to take fishing with him.  Wow - I really like the food.  I'm glad to have this new source of food storage, especially for the fruits and vegetables.

I read a great book - The Healing Code by Alex Lloyd and Ben Johnson.  Did I mention that already?  I think I did.  Anyway, I recommend it to anyone who has a health, relationship, or any kind of problem that you can't figure out how to deal with.

Can I just say that I love May?  I loev the green and flowers, the end-of-the-year things, and looking forward to summer.  And of course, there's Mother's Day and my birthday all in the same month.  It's just a GREAT month.

Happy Mother's Day to you all!