by Heather Plett | May 15, 2006 | Uncategorized
It was a full and family-filled weekend. Julie was in a soccer tournament, and because her team ended up in the finals (which they lost 1-0, boohoo), they had 5 games. So a fair bit of time was spent shuffling back and forth to soccer fields (oh, and one trip to the hospital when she hurt her finger pretty badly and it looked like it was broken. We didn’t stay though, since they warned us that the wait would be 5-6 hours. And REALLY, what can they do for a broken finger other than wrap it up, just like I can do at home?)
Here are a few of my mother moments, most happy and a few sad.
– After a little coaxing from their dad, the oldest 2 girls each pitched in $5 and sent me off to a movie on Saturday night. What fun! A movie by myself! I saw Kinky Boots, which is quite enjoyable, in a Full Monty sort of way.
– Since the movie just HAPPENED to be in the same mall as my favourite bookstore, I wandered around the bookstore after the movie, and ended the evening with a yummy chai latte from the coffee shop in the bookstore.
– One little melancholy moment in the bookstore… while looking for a card for my sister (it’s her first mother’s day), I spotted a card that said something about journeys through life and had a picture of an old couple in a car on a journey together. I felt a lump form in my throat because today, my mom leaves on a 2 month trip to Holland with her husband – the man who is not my father. It still hurts sometimes that Mom and Dad didn’t get to grow old together.
– After the movie and the bookstore, I took the long way home and stopped at Matthew’s grave, partly because the melancholy still clung to me. In addition to missing Dad, I had a bit of a cry about the son I don’t get to mother. I remember the Mother’s Day after we lost Matthew. We ate dinner in the backyard, and there was a butterfly that kept landing on people’s heads as we ate. We said that it was the spirit of Matthew coming to remind his mother that things would be okay.
– At Matthew’s grave, I wrote out the card to my sister, ccap. It makes me happy that we now share motherhood.
– On Sunday morning, I was instructed to stay in bed, and before long, my breakfast arrived. Fresh cinnamon buns, fruit salad, a glass of milk, and a cup of tea. Yum, yum! The girls hopped into bed with me and we all ate breakfast together.
– For Mother’s Day – three home-made cards, three flower pens, a carnation, and a centrepiece. And best of all – three smiling faces proudly offering their gifts.
– I phoned my Mom yesterday, to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day and bon voyage (they’re leaving from Alberta). It makes me sad that now there are so many things I don’t say to my Mom. I love her and I miss her. I don’t always remember to be kind to her.
– Marcel cooked his famous chicken parmigan for supper at his parents’ yesterday. Everyone else provided pasta, salads, and desserts and we had a lovely Mother’s Day feast.
Thus ends another Mother’s Day weekend. I am blessed.
by Heather Plett | May 12, 2006 | Uncategorized
Ummmmm… I LOVE cookie dough. When I was a kid, I used to wonder why we had to waste time baking the cookies when the dough tasted so much better than the cookies. So it’s not hard to imagine that, now that I’m a mother, I don’t have much trouble indulging my kids when they want to reach in and snatch a little cookie dough. In fact, we bought some white chocolate macadamia nut cookie dough from a school fundraiser, and none of it has gotten baked yet. Yes, that’s the container above and it’s nearly empty. After supper for the last several nights, the girls and I have gathered round with our spoons and enjoyed a little cookie dough dessert. Yummm! (Yeah, I’ve heard that it’s not good to feed your kids raw eggs, but there are worse things they could be consuming – like, say, cocaine!)
I’m sure I’m not the only mom who indulges her kids in the things that are closest to her child-heart. In fact, my mom set a good standard in that regard. She was great at indulging us now and then in the things that other moms might have turned their noses up at. Her house might have been messy now and then, but she’d ignore it and sit down with us and read stories. Or, on a hot summer day, she’d bring a big bucket of water and some cups into the front yard and she’d join us in a water fight. She’d also let us eat a little cookie dough now and then (though I don’t remember ever gathering around a bucket of it for dessert.)
There might be lots of things my kids will find to complain about me when they’re grown, but at least they’ll say “she let us eat cookie dough.”
by Heather Plett | May 11, 2006 | Uncategorized
Sometimes I am a weak and foolish person.
Sometimes I hurt people because I jump to conclusions.
Sometimes I am impatient with my children.
Sometimes I approach motherhood like a duty and forget that it is a privilege.
Sometimes I don’t try hard enough to understand other people.
Sometimes I’m a know-it-all with too much pride.
Sometimes I forget to listen.
Sometimes I am lazy and slothful.
Sometimes I take people for granted and forget to appreciate them.
Sometimes I think only of myself.
Sometimes I gossip and forget that it hurts people.
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine what can be done with so much weakness.
One of my favourite books is The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Guide to Self-Discovery. It was a pleasant surprise, because I expected it to be just another feel-good-self-help book. Instead, I was challenged, because one of the most important lessons that I took away from it was that, to fully be ourselves, we need to recognize our weaknesses. I’m working on that.
by Heather Plett | May 9, 2006 | Uncategorized
This little fellow came to visit us tonight. After a collision with our window, he was a little stunned and quite docile. Anyone know what kind it is? He has a lovely greenish colour to him. (We’d just biked home from a soccer game – hence the bike gloves. The girls were brave enough to hold it with a glove on their hand.) We put him on a bench while we ate supper, and now he’s gone. Hopefully, he flew away to a happy long life.
