This is little peek into a few moments of Mom's life story. Mom to eight kids. Most determined woman I know. Queen of DIY. Stead-fast Christ follower. Spunky with a sense of humor. Constantly curious. Out of this world cook--on a dime a day. Gumption of an explorer. Most beautiful smile there is. In her own words:
My daughter has asked me to write a
little in honor of mother’s day, so I agreed. I am grateful to be a mother to
eight children, 4 boys and 4 girls (some grown, some still little), and a
grandma to one very special grandson. They are all very precious and incredible
individuals. Their gifts and personalities are all very unique, each a very
special gift from the Lord. I cherish each and every one of them. Knowing and
loving these people is a very rich experience. They have stretched me (not
always pretty) far beyond where I thought I was capable. I am thankful for the
privilege of nurturing these precious children. I enjoy them immensely and
learn so much from them. Much of
what I’ve learned about mothering, I learned from my mom.
Mom is a devoted mom to 4 children,
a grandma to 12 grandchildren, and a ‘great’ grandma to my grandson. She taught
me to love in many ways. Throughout the years, she has been thoughtful and
giving of herself. As well as caring for our needs, she somehow managed to
provide little surprises for us along the way. As a mom, I now realize how much
effort these ‘little’ surprises took, and wonder how in the world she fit them
in to her busy days. I like to think of them as little celebrations of life and
those we love. I am amazed as I walk through my own journey of motherhood and
think of things she did in the midst of the responsibilities and struggles of
her life. She found a way to pause, to bring joy into a day. I believe it was a
choice for her, to intentionally take a moment and make it special, to choose
to love in this way. She had a knack for turning a simple day into something
really fun, taking a limited budget and providing good food and entertainment,
a gift of love. These taught me to ‘celebrate’ in the midst of my own chaos, (I
lack organizational skills) to look for joy in the sorrow and trials (the
deepest joy is sometimes in the midst of our most difficult trials), and to
cherish my own children, a gift from the Lord. I’ll share just a few of those
memories.
For no apparent reason, Mom made us
a treasure hunt. I have no recollection of what treasure was at the end, but I
sure remember my brothers and my excitement as we followed clues and searched
all over the house. It was great fun.
Mom provided each child with a little
hiding place for a piece of candy or a coin (a coin could buy a lot of candy
then), under a candlestick, a mug, a figurine. That place was ours alone, and
we knew Mom was thinking of us when a surprise awaited us there.
We lived where we had some pretty
amazing winters, and in the days where kids played outside most of the time
(even in single digits!). We (my siblings, and the neighborhood kids) loved
coming in to our house. We were cold, our fingers and toes were numb, and were
hungry. We all knew that we would find yummy food, hot drinks, and a fire to
sit around. (my father worked hard to see that we were always warm) Mom often
fed us a special treat, peanut butter and jelly toasties with hot chocolate to
drink. I’ve found a lot of people don’t know what they are, so I will explain.
Take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and grill them like a grilled cheese
sandwich, then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Kids and adults love them. After getting the hunger taken care of, we’d
sit around and play games while our coats, gloves, and boots dried (there were
a lot of those), then go out and repeat the whole process. My friends were
impressed, and I was happy my mom was mine. Now that I’m a mom, I realize the
effort and the gift of herself that she gave not only to her own children, but
to the neighbor kids as well.
She ‘let’ me cook beside her. I
suspect that her goal was to teach me to cook, but she did it in such a way
that I felt privileged to spend the time with her alone. (absolutely nothing
came out of a box) Not only did my mom let me cook with her, but I remember a
few special times around Christmas that we turned out all of the lights and
cooked by candle light! What fun that was. How did she squeeze that into her
evening, after a day of working to serve? I still haven’t figured that out!
We had everything we needed, my
father saw to that. He worked hard to provide. Steady, serving, whistling. But
we didn’t have a lot of extra money, so had to be creative with fun things. I
learned from Mom how to take a moment and bring joy and spontaneity into it, to
look at circumstances I can’t change, accept them, and find something to
celebrate in the moment. Sometimes I just don’t have it in me to do this, I
know that is okay too. At those times, we don’t celebrate (to say the least…you
can fill in the rest). These are
just a few of the memories that I have of Mom giving of herself. There are many
more.
