Category: Random Thoughts

Treating Mom With Special Touches!

Mother’s Day is next Sunday, May 11th.

I found an old Country Home magazine from 2001. There was a small article on making Mother’s Day dinner special for your Mom with some simple touches.  Below are ideas from the article and a couple of my favorites added.  Although the article is 13 years old the ideas are ageless.

  • Place Mom’s favorite flower in a small bottle or vase, a vintage one would be a really nice look.  Tie a place card around it, and use it to mark her seat at the table.  I used ribbon as you can see below, but raffia would also work. I love this sweet idea!Mother's Day Table Setting idea!
  • Serve up a menu that reflects Mom’s favorites, or the family’s homemade specialties.
  • Set a pretty table using Mom’s favorite colors for the dishes, tablecloth, or napkins.
  • Before the meal, ask each sibling to write a memory of Mom on the back of a place card.  Present them to her after the meal, or during dessert and coffee.
  • Make copies of some old photos with Mom, at different ages in your life, your siblings, or grand children. The memories will be heart warming for her, and for you!  Tie with a ribbon for a sweet, pretty touch.

Hope you can use some of these special touches for your Mother’s Day dinner.

Spend time with your Mother, make memories, hug her lots, because time passes so fast!

I miss my Mother and think of her often during my busy days!

Lime Green Sneakers!

Raining and storms today, so I decided to go to my “things to do” list.

I selected a quick ‘to do”, sorting out my tub of old shoes.

Came across my old Tommy Hilfiger lime green sneakers.  At first I threw them in the “donate” pile, but ……….the more I looked at them, I remembered how much I loved them, and still do!

Lime Green Sneakers!Can a 67 year old woman wear lime green sneakers?

Yes, I can, and I will!

If you have a pair of “lime green sneakers”, get them out, put them on, and enjoy life!

Oh!  This reminds me of a sweet book I read some years ago.

“When I Am An

Old Woman

I Shall Wear Purple”

edited by Sandra Haldeman Martz.

It is a tender, loving, and caring collection of poems and short stories about women growing old.  Read it if you can, it will make you laugh and cry.

My Old Hymnal!

Browsing in antique and old collectible shops is a special treat for me.

Can’t afford to buy a wonderful antique chest or table, but I get such joy finding less expensive items; an old watering can, a tin crayon box, old vintage buttons, and old books.  I love old books, especially children’s books.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOn one of my browsing trips I found a church hymnal, old and worn, with many pages falling out. It cost two dollars.  I bought it because one of the pages that fell out was the old hymn “Jesus Loves Me”.

When my now grown, awesome son, was small I rocked him and sang this song to him.  If he was sick, hurt, sad, or sometimes just tired, this song was magic to him.  Many times he would look up at me and say “sing Jesus Loves Me”.

I love the memory of this song so much that I decided to take the old page and frame it!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love the way it turned out. Using a black double mat brought out the discoloration of the page that age brings.

It is hanging on a wall that I pass many times during the day. What joy I receive from the memory it brings to me!

With Mother’s Day in two weeks, this is a gift to myself.

I thank God for letting me be a mother!

 

A New Day!

Good Morning Everyone!

I opened my eyes this morning, around 6:00 AM.  Our bedroom window was slightly opened and I could feel and smell a cool breeze, birds chirping, as they do in early morning, and also next to me the sounds of my husband’s peaceful sleeping.

Thank you Lord for this new morning.

I am sure some will not experience these simple pleasures today.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI am so grateful for this new beautiful day and all that it will bring.

Hope your day starts with joy!

Smile, be happy, be grateful!

Gratitude…recognizing the treasure in the simple – a child’s hug, fertile soil, a golden sunset.  Relishing the comfort of the common – a warm bed, a hot meal, a clean sheet.

–  Max Lucado

Easter Memories

I have such fond memories of Easter as a child and would like to share a few with all of you today.

We always had new outfits, my sister and I had new dresses, sweet hats, purses, and white gloves. My brother had a new suit and always a bow tie. I do remember getting Easter baskets full of goodies.

ydmWe went to church on Easter morning, and then a trip with my grandmother to the cemetery placing flowers on my grandfather’s grave. This was something we did every Easter.

granny 001This is something that I continue to do to this day.  Tomorrow I will visit my sweet Mother’s grave who is now in heaven.

We then went to Granny’s house for Easter dinner.  Everyone was there, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  There was always so much food, I especially loved my aunt’s homemade biscuits along with Granny’s gravy.

There was always a table filled with desserts, all homemade.  I remember chocolate cake, a stacked apple cake, Granny made, and my aunt’s coconut cream pie.  Yummy!

After dinner a favorite memory was my Mother and her sisters doing the dishes and singing old gospel songs.  They would sing, and cry, and laugh.  It makes me so sad that they have all passed away.  Thank God for memories.  My heart is full of joy remembering them all together in the kitchen.

These were some of the good memories of my childhood.

I hope everyone has a blessed Easter.

yvonne 001

Make some joyful memories this Easter with your family!

 

 

 

Choose Joy!

"Joy" sign!I love this little sign!

When I saw it in a local gift shop I bought it immediately.

My husband suffers from Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, and many days he has issues with cramps, burning, and muscle spasms in his legs.

My thought, when I bought this, was to hang it in the kitchen so when he gets his morning coffee and muffin he sees it and remembers, life can bring us so much joy, even when we are facing difficult times.

My prayer today is that you also remember to choose joy in your life.

Joyful blessing to all!