Mother's Day Weekend & Other "Stuff"

I hope that you all had a glorious Mother's Day.  I always try hard not to put any kind of great expectations or pressure upon my daughter about what she "ought" to do for me for Mother's Day.  You see, Mother's Day has sometimes felt a bit bittersweet here.  Let me explain…it's not that we don't have a great relationship.  I LOVE being Penny's mom!  And I know that she loves having me as a mom.  But, although she doesn't talk much about it, I'm sure that she is also sad, in a way, realizing that there's almost no chance she'll ever be able to reconnect with her birth mom.  I don't make a big deal out of it, but I also want to acknowledge that part of Penny.  Without her birth mom, she never would have received the gift of her life.  So, without focusing too much energy on it, so as to add to the grieving, I simply pray for her birth mom on Mother's Day.  And I think that brings Penny some peace, knowing that our Heavenly Father sees her mom, wherever she is, and loves her dearly.  This year I was blessed with a very lovely, handwritten card by my beautiful daughter.  It is so precious, that I had to take pictures of it.

Mother's Day was also bittersweet this year, because it's the first year we went to celebrate with Jay's mom and Father was absent.  Since, we haven't been to the house, ever since the funeral, it seemed especially odd to come around a corner and not see Father sitting in his chair.  

We had a good time with Mother by going out to one of her favorite restaurants, "Vern's Cafe".  It is near the foothills of the mountains outside of Ft. Collins.  Then we took a drive through the countryside over to Horsetooth Reservoir.  We saw a bald eagle fly overhead, a deer on the side of the road.  That night we heard coons chattering outside of Mother's house and on our way home, two coyotes ran across the road in front of us!  We did that on Saturday, because on Sunday we got snow!  Besides that, I came down with the illness that hit Penny first and then Jay. After going to the late service at church we just stayed home and ate tostadas and watched movies, while the snow fell.

I did manage to get some pictures of my lilacs and my irises before the snow flattened them.  I am SO excited about the irises, because I planted them last year, since a neighbor of a friend had given me some transplants.  I've heard that transplanted irises don't always bloom the first year, which was the case when I planted some in Fort Collins.  But, this year I was blessed with blooms right away.  It looks much better than the empty flower beds that adorned the side of our house, before.