I have been blessed with an amazing mother. The things she has experienced and overcome in her lifetime I cannot even imagine going through myself. She is my best girlfriend and we enjoy spending time with each other--even so much more now, since I have children of my own and we can talk not just as mother/daughter/friend, but as wives and moms as well. It is truly special, and today I am starting a new tradition on my blog--Grateful Sundays--and this first one, Mom, is for you!
My mother and I were not always as close as we are now. Through my pre-teen years we clashed over schoolwork in particular. She is wonderfully gifted in math, while I struggled all the way, even with her help. I felt sometimes like I just couldn't measure up in that way--the way she seemed to really want me to. Now I know that not only was she hoping I'd get a scholarship for college ;) --but she was also trying to show me that I should never accept an "I can't do it" kind of attitude. She simply would not let me do less than she knew I could. (In the end, I did pull eventually A's in math and yes, I did get the scholarship... thanks in large measure to her perserverance.)
I am a "why" person. I always have been. I frustrated my teachers and classmates while in public school to absolutely no end because I would innocently but incessantly ask excitedly "Oh--so is that why...!?" all the time. While some of my early teachers were kind enough to explain my further questions and share my exciting moments of discovery with me
after the schoolday was over, most were frustrated because they had to cover so much material in a day, as required by schoolboards and set curriculum. The class simply didn't have time for my curiosity. I still remember the humongous sighs from all around the room when I would raise my hand...
So enter homeschool, and a whole new opportunity to explore the joys of learning deeply and in wonderful, exciting ways that allowed my brothers and I to learn together. It was one of the best things our family ever did, and another thing that I will be forever grateful for. It was an enormous sacrifice on my mother's part. I realize she could have done so many other things, rather than stay home with us for all those years. She is a remarkably gifted and intelligent woman; but she saw the importance and great worth of staying home with us--to teach us, to spend that time with us...time that simply does not come back. I am so grateful for all of the learning, the laughs, the memories. We learned together--and we also learned to love each other more fully, to work together, to help each other. Now with my own children I am also dedicated to staying home with them--and not only to being here in person, but to being here with them in spirit. Spending quality time, and giving them all that I can, while I can. Motherhood...sacrifice...time...what can I say more?
It was during the homeschool years that things also came to a head over that sticky math problem, though--specifically with Algebra. I had to know WHY it all worked like it did, why we even needed it. Mom couldn't give me those answers--and to be quite honest, for the life of me I couldn't tell anyone the whys of algebra now either. Such a small fragment of the population uses it that I personally think we'd be better served teaching our kids to balance a checkbook, or to understand credit cards, mortgages or the stock market (OK OK, maybe that's another one that defies whys...). But we got through.
Suffice it to say, Mom and I had a hard time. But there was one thing in particular that brought us together through all the difficulty. And that was...
Our garden.
Oh, we worked in the house together too, and cooked and went shopping together. But in the vegetable and flower gardens, we worked, we weeded, we planned and planted and smiled at the mockingbird that sang from on top of his telephone pole in the early mornings.
We shook our fists at the deer that came from the woods during the night to eat our swiss chard and sunflowers. We harvested green beans, corn, squash and tomatoes for summer Sunday dinners--the best I can remember--entirely fresh, wholesome, and satisfying.
And in our gardens, my Mom and I talked.
So as we approach Mothers' Day soon, and while Spring is blossoming everywhere, I think again about those days in the gardens, outside with my strong and wonderful mother--days that very well may have slowly but quite definitely changed the course of my life.
With two babies in the house now, it's taken me literally days to finish this card for her, as I'm constantly having to jump up to get Ben out of something in the kitchen or fetch crying little Joseph from his cradle. With thousands of things to do, it's still been nice to have a moment here and there, Mom, to think about you.
Let me tell you all about some other meaninful extras on this card...
For one of my parents' anniversaries, my Dad, knowing how much my mother loves flowers, bought her a dozen deep purple iris plants. When we moved from our home where we had the gardens, my mother's mother's white azalea and the irises came with us.
Also on this card I've used a small piece of vintage lace that my mom gave me, which came from an old pillow of her grandmother's...
I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch for the layout, but flipped it 180 degrees:
Here is the full card:
Materials Used on this Card:
Cardstock {We R Memory Keepers, Making Memories, Papertrey Ink}
Patterned papers {Hot off the Press}
Stamps {Inkadinkado, PSX}
Ink {Studio G (lavendar), Ranger Archival Black}
Embellishments:
Purple self-adhesive pearls {e. by Prima Marketing}
Light green brads {Spare Parts by The Paper Studio}
Ribbon {Robert Stanley}
Vellum Iris Stickers {Sticko}
Vintage Lace
Butcher's twine
Tools:
Divine Swirls Embossing folder, Cuttlebug machine {Provo Craft}
Nestabilities {Spellbinders}
Circle Cutter {Martha Stewart}
Circle Punches , Corner Rounder {EK Success}
Pop dots {This-to-That}
Challenges:
Truly Scrumptious #55
"Vintage" - my great-grandmother's lace
--Kathryn
