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My mom was the best.  She was sweet, gentle and refined.  She loved and gave of that love freely.  I have wonderful memories of growing up with goodly parents.  She was a great example to me of what a mother should be like.  One time, when I was raising my children, I asked her, "Mom, would you have all seven of us if you had it to do over again? Of course, I knew there was no way she'd answer that in the negative, but her answer still surprised me and gave me a glimpse into her soul.  She said, "Oh, I would have had two more if I could have; one between Nan and Philip and one between you and Philip."  To me, that was the best answer she could have given.  That was the kind of example she was to me.

Now that I'm a mother I have followed her example of her life many times over.  I wish I could still pick up the phone to ask her advice and tell her how much I love and appreciate her.  I know she sacrificed a lot for all of us.  I also know that we, as her children, weren't always easy. Each of us in our turn gave her some trials and struggles, but she never stopped loving us.  

One good habit my mother had that I took many years to pick up was that of getting up early.  She had been trained as a child to wake in the wee morning hours to do chores.  Her father was a stern, hard-working man and expected his kids to work.  As a mother, she'd get up to catch up on the washing and ironing (which most of us don't do at all anymore).  I'm talking 5:00 AM or even earlier.  I was a "sleeper in-er" and as often as I could I stayed in bed; as long as I could!  I think they even gave up on getting me up in the summers as a teen because Christine remembers being woken and told to mow the lawn each Saturday morning.  I don't remember ever doing that.  

Most of all, my mom was an example of serving.  Even when she had Alzheimer's, she didn't lose the desire to give to others.  She had three recipes she could still make as her illness increased: minestrone soup, shrimp cocktail drink, and broccoli salad.  She always wanted to give us some to take home.  Unfortunately, we didn't always know how fresh it was, or if had been refrigerated (in the winter, she often used the garage as a fridge, but when she was ill, I don't think she thought about whether it was summer or winter).  Sometimes we had to throw it away when we got home.  When Nan took her to Costco, she'd always put two watermelons in the cart--one for herself and one for Nan's family.  My dad would give Nan instructions to not allow my mom to keep buying so much food.  

She also wanted to give treats to the kids.  I remember her opening bags of gummy candy; dumping the bags into baggies, and giving a whole bag to each child. Christine said she had to watch her because she would put candy into her kid's mouths, when they were too young to eat it.

When I had Nick, my mom said to me, "Once you have a child you never stop worrying."  I filed it away, but I know I didn't fully understand it until my children left home and started families of their own.  

I love being a mother.  I am so happy that I had each of my eight children.  Unlike my mom, however, I don't think I could have handled two more (or even one).😀

I spent more than 25 years with young children celebrating me on Mother's Day.  Now I can't claim the day as my own because I have 5 daughters and 2 daughters in-law that also deserve love and accolades on this day (even Cait, though she hasn't started having children quite yet).  So, today I wish you all a wonderful Mother's Day and commend you on your journey of raising children.  It's the best thing I've ever done in my life, and I know it will the crowning achievement for all of you and will bring you the most joy.

My wonderful husband also celebrated his birthday this week.  He is 66.  I keep thinking 65, but that year has passed.  Roy has always treated me so well.  He's been a great example to others throughout his life.  He knows what's important and is good at setting priorities and getting the most important things taken care of first.  Roy knows how to play and he has many hobbies, but he also works hard.  I am so grateful that he has been my partner in life for 44 years.  

Events of the Week

We had a lot of events, but I didn't take pictures of everything.  

Tuesday we went to the temple

Wednesday we took Nan and Bruce to the play, "May We All" at the Hale Center Theater.  It was really fun.  I was worried for about 5 minutes that we wouldn't like it.  We also had dinner at La Cai Noodle House, which is a favorite of theirs and of ours.

Friday night we met Christine and Steve at The Italian Village.  We'd never eaten there, but were satisfied with the food and the decent prices.  Christine and I proceed to Nuttalls store immediately after that.  After realizing the "event" was an infomercial, we did a little shopping and went to Christine's house.  We were able to visit for another hour before we went home to get some rest from our busy week.

Bevy and Avie graduated from kindergarten.  We didn't make it to either program. 
Avie's group didn't don the robes, but they had a cute program

We spent Thursday in Logan with Crista and the kids.  We didn't do a lot for Crista, but
we had a good time and enjoyed the kids. She took us out for lunch
 for Roy's birthday and for Mother's Day. 
 Greta had a play date so we didn't see her until we were leaving. 
Luckily we were able to catch about 15 minutes of Ruby's soccer game.

Ruby was goalie for the last quarter of the game

 

Saturday I tended Foster so Jennie could go to the temple on her birthday (Happy Birthday, Jennie!)

We were working in the yard and I didn't want Foster falling into the creek when my back was turned, so I hired Yuna to come over and help me with her.  Yuna came, then Hyeji and Yuli (Yuli doesn't like to be left home when people are going places).  Then Dojin showed up and wanted a job.  We put them all to work.  In the picture on the right, Dojin and Yuna show off the edible "puff ball" mushrooms they found on their hike.  Dan cooked up the left one.  He said the right one didn't look very appetizing.