(not us, but somewhat similar if your glasses are off)
—
this is a day late
and a million or so dollars short
but we all came together
at exactly the right time.
—
“here’s to good women. may we know them. may we be them. may we raise them.”
love, yourmom
much love to my three daughters, each one now a mother too, on mothers day.
even if i only rarely called you by your right name on the first try.
—
“mothers are not the nameless,
faceless stereotypes
who appear once a year on a greeting card with their virtues set to prose,
but women who have been dealt a hand for life
and play each card one at a time the best way they know how.
no mother is all good or all bad,
all laughing or all serious,
all loving or all angry,
ambivalence rushes through their veins.”
-erma bombeck
what a lovely afternoon spent
with a family whose three daughters
each of us have taught and loved in our turn over the years
as they gave thanks to all of their teachers
by cooking and serving us an amazing brunch
at a beautiful table
complete with many homemade delights
main courses, sweets, desserts, coffee, and fruit prosecos
dad and daughters prepare our meal
while mom finalizes the drinks and details in the dining room
—
such an amazing and generous gesture
as their last daughter leaves the familiar comfort
of our elementary school
and moves on to her next chapter
in the middle school division
along with her lovely family
who we will miss
and who have taught their daughters
the wisdom of gratitude and kindness.
—
“what wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”
-jean-jacques rousseau
had tea and morning meditation with one
surprised and had coffee with another
shared a friendly birthday dinner with yet another, at her in-laws’.
–
it was a good day.
—
‘be happy for this moment. this moment is your life.”
-omar khayyam
—
image credits: google images, pinterest
early mother’s day surprise movie present
courtesy of
my daughters
who remember prince and his music
as a part of their days
growing up with me
and
we
watched him on the big screen
and
sang and danced
with 1,000 other people
of all ages
who remembered him too
and we even
smuggled in food
in a big purse
just like the days
when we didn’t have a lot of money
but we did have
a lot of dollar movies
a lot of music
and
a whole lot of love.
—
happy mother’s day to all who mother
and to those who really know their mothers.
whose names i have always mixed and matched
thank you for answering to any name
that begins with the letter ‘h’
whether it’s yours or not.
—
image credit: google image
having
named
all of
my
3 daughters
all close in age
with
names
that
all begin
with the letter
h
has caused
me to
rarely
if ever
call them
by their
proper name
at least
on
the first
or
the second
try
and
they’ve
all learned
over time
to just
answer
to
any of them
and
when they
all sign their cards
to me
love
your favorite daughter, h
i know i’ve done it right
—
one thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child’s name and how old he or she is.
– erma bombeck
—
image credit: pinterest.com
it began and ended with a rabbit. it was in my front yard for hours. it came each morning and sat like that for days on end. i told the ‘ 3 h’s,’ (my adult daughters), about this rabbit, who now seemed to have moved into my yard, but anytime any of them came over it happened to be gone, so they didn’t really believe me. they should have though, especially since they’ve called me snow white at times, due to the heavy traffic of woodland creatures who seem to hang out with me in my little yard, and it would have made perfect sense.
a couple of weeks later, i came home and was walking out to see the garden, when i looked up and caught my breath. i gasped, as my first impression, (for no known reason, don’t even try to analyze this one), was that a giant tin solider was standing there, stock still, and staring down at me. once i regained my composure, realized it was not a soldier, but actually, a 5 foot tall hand-carved wooden rabbit. and i don’t know which is more frightening really. i went inside and called the daughters, who confessed they had bought it for two dollars at a recycle center and placed it where i said my rabbit supposedly hung out each day. they thought i would love it and i do appreciate their humor.
i moved the giant rabbit to the front porch and my real rabbit continued on with it’s daily visits for a couple more weeks, until one day when i noticed the poor rabbit had passed away. i called one of the h’s to come over and help me bury it, as i just couldn’t bring myself to do so. as we were talking on the phone, i saw two huge, black birds circling around it, and as they landed and approached the rabbit, it got up and hopped away. what???!!!! it was playing dead? what was going on? i then had to tell h that is was not in fact dead but was only playing dead. this really kicked my credibility up another notch.
as luck and coincidence would have it, and in keeping with my ‘always learn something from my dates streak’, i happened to have a first date that night with our state’s fur bearing animal specialist, who works for the dnr. his focus was really on wolves and bears, but i figured i could ask him what was going on with my rabbit as it was technically a fur bearing animal. he knew the answer right away and told me that a mother rabbit will stay still all day, faking death when necessary, so that other animals will not bother it, to protect baby bunnies in a nest nearby, until they are ready to hop out into the world on their own. who knew?
soon after, the rabbit just disappeared and i figured that the babies must have made their way out into the world. over time,the wooden totem pole rabbit became a mainstay at all of the celebrations at my cottage. it was decorated, carried signs, wore costumes, and greeted guests for many exciting events. it became a part of the family.
my giant wooden rabbit decorated for the cat’s (sugar) birthday celebration
but – the rabbit drama was not over quite yet. all three daughters were over at my house one night, as i headed off for an evening with the ladies in my book club. they really had no plans, and i thought back to the days when they were little girls, and would cook up all sorts of adventure/trouble when they were together and had too much time on their hands. i brushed it off and went out on my own adventure.
when i came home, around midnight, i found a letter tucked into my front door. i discovered it was not a letter after all, but a police report. it seems someone had called the local police to file a complaint about a girl, (one of my h’s, and described as ‘latina- looking’), was yelling and screaming to get in the house and causing a huge commotion. oh, and that she was ‘indecently exposed’ wearing a thong of some sort. there was a hand written note at the end asking me to call the police in the morning.
i stormed in and thought about how i was going to deal with this whole crazy situation. i decided to sleep on it and as i went to pull back my covers, there was my giant carved rabbit, now dressed in my lingerie, waiting for me in my bed! i almost laughed but was still a bit crabby about whatever i had to do to deal with the police in the morning, so i just pushed it onto the floor and went to sleep.
when morning came, i questioned the girls, each one saying ‘you tell her, you tell her.’ finally they told me that they were bored and had dared the youngest h, in her late teens, to run outside around their car, in a thong. when she came to the door they locked her out for a minute, and she ‘overreacted.’’ when i asked why she would have agreed to this, she said, ‘they promised me 10$ if i would do it and i needed gas money.’ i told her i would have just given her the money, but this was really ridiculous, and they were all going to come with me to the police station to straighten it out. they could not believe i was making them go with me, one had to go to work and her boyfriend even stood in for her, another called her boyfriend and said, ‘we are in big trouble, mom is really mad!’
as i loaded them all up and was heading there, still crabby, one asked, ‘are you really mad? you really seem like you might be.’ they know i very rarely get mad and so this was a serous situation. one then turned to me and said, ‘mom, we were just kidding. we were going to confess that we made it up, but we didn’t know you’d get so mad and you’d turn us in, your own kids, if we committed a murder, you probably would turn us in too!’ um,,, yes, i would.
it seems they had been planning this night for weeks. even the guys were in on it. the eldest h had somehow gotten her hands on a blank police report and they had spent some serious time thinking about what they could do with it. they took the time to type it out and think about what ‘crime’ they could have committed that would warrant a police report. the youngest ‘h’ probably would have done the thong run, so that made sense, and they knew i would react, but thought i would be laughing. i have to give them credit, it was pretty clever, and i told them i will get my revenge one day when they least expect it, when they are all together again.
i kept the giant rabbit for a few years. then passed it on to the youngest ‘h’ and she kept it for another year, before we sold it at her yard sale for two dollars, it’s original price. this rabbit had seen a lot of action and was ready to retire.
When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he’s doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911.
Erma Bombeck
once upon a time, there was a mama bear named beth who had 3 little girl bears. each one was very different, yet for some reason mama bear had thought it was a good idea, (at the time), to give each one a name that began with the letter,’h.’ over time, each had learned just to answer to any name that began with the letter ‘h’ because the odds were that mama bear usually was calling them by the wrong name. especially when she was tired or was excited or was laughing or was a bit worked up about something.
well, the little bears grew up and each went to their own cave, but there were some special moments when they all were all back together, in the same place at the same time. it was during one of those times, that mama bear had another good idea, and she gave two of the little bears a certificate to go to a local spa as a gift for their birthdays, which were close together. it had been a long season, and they were tired and needed some pampering. the third little bear stayed with mama and played games and had coffee and chatted about how much fun the other two must be having and how relaxed they would be after their special day.
when the two little bears got home, and came through the door, they had sad and disappointed looks on their faces, and one was even hobbling a bit. and they shared their story of what happened at the spa that day. it seems the spa had gotten them mixed up, as both of their names began with ‘h,’ and they had arrived together.
one had wanted a deep tissue sports massage, and spent a long time waiting for the massage to ‘really begin.’ she said when she heard the enya music, and smelled lavender and her masseuse was whispering, she had a feeling it was not going to be the experience she had expected. when she was finished, she walked out and came around the corner, only to run into her little bear sister who had tears in her eyes, and was walking very gingerly. she had been given the hardcore sports massage and had moaned and groaned throughout the treatment, as she was pummeled and twisted and turned, and she was waiting for the gentle massage to begin, and her whole body was now aching and she was in pain.
when they told mama and the third little bear the whole story, the listeners really did try to be sympathetic, they really, really did, but they could not stop laughing about the mixup. this did not make the two little spa bears feel any better. the ones who stayed home realized they had been the ones to have the relaxing day, not the ones who went out to seek comfort. but they were smart, and thought it might not be a good idea to bring it up right then.
when everyone calmed down, and when it had been quiet for a bit, they all sat down (carefully), and mama bear made everyone some comfort food, and gave each bear a healthy glass of red wine, and then all of the ‘h’s’, (who knows which went first?), took turns retelling their version of the story. and then there was laughter in the house once more, along some painful wincing going on.
The whole campaign was a tragic case of mistaken identity. – George McGovern
————–
image credits: art.com, http://www.alisal.com/spa.html
found this old book of love that my daughters had given me for my birthday more than a decade ago. i laughed out loud all over again, at their kind and loving and humorous approach to life. no one had much money, but this book was worth everything. they spoiled me with offers of flowers and treats and reluctant shared experiences and pampering (even though they signed up their third sister who was out of the country for this task). here are some of the coupons found within:
Children make your life important. –Erma Bombeck
I didn't have my glasses on.... 