A Mother's "Mansion"

Mother's Day was a happy day for me. The whole family was together for all three meals, and we spent the evening with Jonathan's parents. Grandpa took this photo in their backyard, with an aspen and a little windmill behind us, in between us and the city scene. To the right in the lower corner, you can see Grandma's rhubarb coming up in her garden.

We had taken supper in for us all, and Grandma added fruit slices. 

Sunday morning after service, friends had brought this bag of fresh cut rhubarb, which they urged me to take. They have more than they need, and I didn't have to be urged twice to take the rhubarb. We turned it into two desserts this week. How I love fresh, homegrown food!

For my devotions that day, I read through this little book Mom gave me for my birthday, Fresh Cut Flowers for Mother.  

There's nothing happier for a mom than to be loved by her family, and to spend life with her family loving others. 

Life for me is not about having a spotless home or a perfect family, just as long as love is there, and forgiveness when we mess up, and lots of love all year long and not just on birthdays,

[like Carrie's, who wanted homemade pizza and icecream cake (since it was the tenth anniversary since she invited our friends the Goodwins to her 12th birthday and had an ice cream cake and pizza!)]

This evening I was really wiped out after a big day, including helping lug fencing down to a spot where our neighbors' steers keep jumping the fence and getting into our pasture. A couple children and I put up that piece of fencing and wired up several spots where fence was coming apart. It just wasn't something I was really strong enough to do, and though I kept going most of the day, I ended up crashing this evening--hence a new blog post, since I often blog when I'm too worn out to do anything else! 

 But anyway, Hannah noticed me just wiped out on the recliner, too weak to even sit at the computer in the office. She came over, sat down on the arm of the recliner, and put her arm around me.

"I love you," she said, patting my shoulder. 

"I love you, too!" I told her, patting her arm back.  

I hope my children won't "grow out of" loving their mother, or that I won't stop loving them. 

I hope it won't just be on birthdays that we love one another--but always.

When I was in South Dakota,  a missionary mother of eight children told me about how one native girl asked where she lived.

 "When I told her," the lady said, "the girl said, 'Oh, you live in that mansion!' Our home is two-story, and we don't have junk lying around. And inside the house I keep it clean. I cook food, and there is love there. They think we live in a mansion!"

Yes, where love is, the house is a mansion! Yesterday, our family got to share our little "mansion" with another Christian family. With five young children of their own and one adopted, they are one busy family. The military dad works in rather high circles regarding intelligence. Both parents have been in several countries around the world, and have a real heart for reaching out as Christians. We loved getting to know them better, and they envied our 5 acres and animals. The children got to pet kittens, puppies, and a new calf. 

 

They got to help gather eggs and gather chicks! They got to enjoy our daughter's birthday party, and join in our little family worship. "We've tried to do family worship," the dad admitted, "and it just falls apart!" We encouraged them to just do a few minutes but consistently.

Just a loving home literally is an amazing outreach. This family home schools, and while most military families around them view them as a little weird, the children in homes around them know where to go when they are lonely or needing a little love. They know which home has the mother at home all the time, and where real food is cooked. 

Such homes are mansions!

And I have one of them!