Mother's Day and Campfires

This weekend Olivia embarked on her very first overnight camping trip for Brownie Girl Scouts. She was SO excited!--bouncing off the walls from the moment she arrived home from school until the moment Brillo Man and I left her at the heated camping lodge complete with modern bathrooms and comfortable bunk beds with mattresses! (Whatever happened to tents in the woods?!) Actually, for a first time overnight trip, at the tender age of six, I'm glad she's going to be warm and dry and comfortable in the lodge. There will be time for tent camping later on when she's a little older.

Olivia at camp with her box oven.
She tells me she baked some delicious cookies!

...sound asleep in the recliner.
Her camping trip completely wore her out!


I read something in a recent post on Connie's blog: ..."from the moment (your children) are born, you are teaching them how to live apart from you. Every step they take will take them further away and every word they learn will move them to greater independence". While Connie and I are the same age, we have two very different family situations. Her four children are grown and she is a Grandma. I have an almost-seven-year-old and am old enough to BE her Grandma! I don't imagine it's any easier though to watch our children transform into independent beings right before our eyes. No matter what their age.

I think about my own Mother. Mom will always be my Mom - no matter how old I get to be. The feelings and love she has for me will never change. I don't imagine that it's any easier for her to watch from a distance her children's independance all the while fondly remembering her days of constant close watch over us. Perhaps there are days when she wishes she still had us all to herself...but then again, perhaps not. Just as Connie has said that she has earned her rest...my Mother has also. She's put in the long hours; praying, worrying, wiping snotty noses, caring for us when we were sick, holding us when we were afraid, doing all the wonderful and difficult things that you do when you're a Mom...and loving us....unconditionally.

On this Mother's Day, I'm reminded, as always, what a great sacrifice my Mother made for me. There will never be words grandiose enough to thank her properly. I have always appreciated her, especially when I became an adult...but OH...how much MORE now that I'm a Mother myself! Unless you're a Mom, you can't possibly comprehend the emotion that goes along with the title. I believe that something happened in my heart the moment I became a Mom. It's indescribable!

Even knowing all the things that my Mom did for me, I'm most grateful for her love. I now understand how much I was (and am) loved by my Mother....and my heart is full!

I love you Mom! May you be blessed in ways that you can't imagine for all the ways that you bless me with your incomprehensible love! Happy Mother's Day!

Of course, the photo that I wanted to post, of Mom doing the motions to "Father Abraham" while singing around our Girl Scout Campfire, is nowhere to be found, so I had to settle for this:

Mom circa 1990 after having just been attacked with Silly String!

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Her children arise and call her blessed...
-Proverbs 31:28

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