Just Add Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust: May 2024

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Ice Cream & a Bible Study

This weekend I made two gallons (actually I'm not sure if it's exactly one gallon) but I made two big containers of homemade ice-cream! We love it - it's so fresh with all the best ingredients. Especially the strawberry -- amazing! I used sweet, fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped up. It makes the best ice-cream!

I also made 'smores! {with marshmallow cream, graham crackers, and chocolate}

I love to have all kinds of homemade treats on hand and ready to go whenever I need them for something like this:

I did a 'birthday tea' bible study with Abigail on a busy Tuesday evening in between loads of laundry and me writing report cards and her writing a paper for a lit class.

Not everything needs to be pretty. It just have to have love. I can reach the heart of my daughter and guide her in the direction of God and love of Jesus on a full table with notebooks and report cards.

That's why I love to have homemade treats on hand -- instant bible study/tea party!

I did decide to hold on a birthday gift from last week. I saved it for her birthday 'tea party' bible study which was actually a homemade ice-cream party.

Sunday, May 26, 2024

New Viola!

Back in April Abigail got a new viola.

It's quite a process I tell you. I couldn't be more grateful for her private teacher. So much time to choose.

Her new one next to the one we sold.

Success! New case too! Here's to deep rich sound, and many happy years more of playing.

Spring

Easter -- sent 6 weeks ahead

Written back in March -- somehow found it on this blog and posting it two months later, in May!

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Anna in China is something we have slowly gotten used to. She is doing amazing and we are so proud of her. But we miss her terribly. Sometimes I get this wave of sadness and missing that just stops me in my tracks. This summer is going to be so great! I am really looking forward to it.

One thing I have to be on top of with her so far away is getting her packages shipped out about six weeks before I want her to have them.

Our Valentine package got there ON Valentine's Day!

And we sent this out in the middle of February. Good thing stores have Easter things out right after Christmas!

We filled that box with about as much love as we could!!! We wanted it full of things that would make her smile, a few things she really needed from home (her soap!) and some surprises too!

So grateful to send this off. Wish we could pop out and get a hug from her!

Abigail is Seventeen!

Oh Abigail, I love your birthday because I love that swell in your heart day when I can just think about how lovely it is that God blessed me with you!

Your birthday arrives each year in the midst of the busiest time of year for a mama classroom teacher and a middle school principal daddy, but it doesn't matter because no matter what we celebrate you!

This year her birthday fell in the middle of a weekend with two orchestra concerts - both Saturday and Sunday! So we had a grandparent party (coffee, tea, and treats) in the morning on Saturday.

Boy! I whipped that up in no time but it turned out lovely and perfect.

The day started out with our family tradition of walking in and singing happy birthday to wake up up. (sorry Anna wasn't there)

And then we set up all of the food. Simple.

I made homemade donuts that morning for your 'cake'.

Anna called from China as we were getting the morning all set up. And she had left (before China) a birthday note for her sister.

Time for donut cake!

There was coffee, tea, treats, presents, and just the loveliest morning around our dining room table.

(my Moms first time over since a big surgery)

One of Abigail's birthday presents was a school trip to NYC to see The Great Gatsby on Broadway! She just went yesterday and had the best time!

How Mother's Day Was This Year

This year I missed Anna. Sure, she's away at college now but I still got to be with her on Mother's Day.

Here is her freshman year on Mother's Day

Here is her sophomore year on Mother's Day

But her junior year of college she was so far away -- Beijing China! Oh how I wish we could just drive a little over an hour to Holy Cross!

So we made the best of it and Scott filled my day with so much loveliness that it actually felt ok.

Scott always 'gives me' a project that I've been wanting to get to in our house.

So excited about wallpaper!

The best present of all was getting to talk to Anna

In the afternoon we went out to lunch in the coziest, most lovely town (collinsville)

A little reflection on Mother's Day ~

Baby Years: And then it feels like all of a sudden, it's yours... you're a mama and the day has new meaning. And it's pretty with the flowers and the sweetness of a toddler.

Elementary Years: Young children are by far my favorite years... those golden elementary years of homemade cards, hugs, sticky syrup breakfasts they make you... dreamy, happy, (and yes, even tiring) but golden, wonderful Mother's Days.

Boy it sure was hard to get a good picture with them when they were little. One would look great and then the other wouldn't. There might be tears and then smiles, all with a moment! But I sure did love those elementary/preschool Mother's Days!

Teen Years: And then all of a sudden you have a fifteen year old and a nineteen year old. Mother's Day feels different. But still just as lovely and wonderful (maybe even more because you are grateful for those precious children that are yours) - still a day to bask in the goodness of knowing you've been given the gift of being a mother.