A few days ago, Elisabeth, my 18 year old daughter, surprised me with these peonies she picked up on a trip to the grocery store. What an unexpected and totally sweet gesture! To tell you the truth, that’s enough of a Mother’s Day gift for me, though I suspect she and her dad have something else hidden up their sleeves! The older Lizzy gets, the more thoughtful she is of Ben and me, even though there are plenty of days when she thinks we are the craziest loons in the world. Just looking at this table conjures up all sorts of great memories of our family. The shells in the bowl are ones that we have actually collected at either South Padre Island or Galveston – two places not exactly known for good shelling. You should only know how hard we worked to find those!!!!! While we have jars and jars of tiny shells, these are the cream of the crop that we’ve found. Ben and I can look through that bowl and remember where we found each shell and which summer it was. Just glancing at the sand dollar on top, for instance, reminds us of that time in Galveston when Lizzy was in 8th grade and we were there with her then best friend Cori. A huge storm blew through and dislodged hundreds of shells from the dunes. Later that afternoon I found five perfect sand dollars, a record for our family! Hopefully one day Lizzy will tell her own children about that day, and all the other specials times we’ve shared together. Because, that’s what it’s all about – making memories to smile about later on.
Ben, with eyes only for our daughter Elisabeth, holding her absolutely too adorable baby cousin Laine Wise.
Wishing all the mothers out there a wonderful Mother’s Day!!!! And a very special one to my own mother, Betty Rae, and my mother-in-law, Mary.
