My Piece of Foreign Sky

Well, this was the Mothers' Day to end all Mothers' Days! I told Rich I only need a weekend like this every decade or so and I'll be able to keep on truckin'. It all started with these beautiful flowers Rich brought home from his meeting in Bozeman Thursday night.
They are really stunning and I can smell the lilies everywhere!

Then yesterday Rich "let" me indulge in some geraniums and alyssums at Pamida...

...so I spent a beautiful morning potting with my girls, listening to "Says You" on NPR. Later, Rich took the kids outside and banned me from the garage where they worked on my Mothers' Day surprise while I took a long bath to soak my sunburn blisters and read my new "Real Simple" magazine...
This is houw our yard looks now in the dusk...tons of yellow tulips, grape hyacinths, and red geraniums!
Heidi presented me with this darling flower box SHE MADE HERSELF when she went to a class at the hardware store with Daddy on Saturday. The little pots are from Addie's school, and the yellow vase is from Addie, too...what sweeties!

On Sunday morning, I was led upstairs in my robe to the front porch to find...

Come sit a spell!

new adirondack chairs I have been dreaming of! They even face the sunset (which won't be coming til about 10pm soon, but how fun is that!?) and have fold-out attached ottomans!!! Rich just rocks!

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While I was sitting in said chairs, Sweet Baby James came outside with a tiny velvet box, and inside there was...

MY MOTHERS' RING!!!!!

I know, I couldn't get a decent photo, but isn't it sweet? I just love it! Addie (my topaz) said, "I'm the sun, James is the blue sky, and Heidi is the ocean!" Awww...I just love my kids! (and their awesome daddy!)

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There are just no words to express the gratitude I feel for the privilege of being "mother to these three." I resort to lyrics, poems, scriptures, songs when I try to say how glad I am to have these brilliant souls in my care, and to have the best partner with whom to share the work and the joy. They've made all my dreams come true.

“Most of you are mothers, and very many of you are grandmothers and even great-grandmothers. You have walked the sometimes painful, sometimes joyous path of parenthood. You have walked hand in hand with God in the great process of bringing children into the world that they might experience this estate along the road of immortality and eternal life. It has not been easy rearing a family. Most of you have had to sacrifice and skimp and labor night and day. As I think of you and your circumstances, I think of the words of Anne Campbell, who wrote as she looked upon her children:

You are the trip I did not take;
You are the pearls I cannot buy;
You are my blue Italian lake;
You are my piece of foreign sky.
(“To My Child,” quoted in Charles L. Wallis, ed., The Treasure Chest [1965], 54)

You [mothers] are the real builders of the nation wherever you live, for you have created homes of strength and peace and security. These become the very sinew of any nation.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

Ensign, Nov 1996