The Power of a Mother’s Love

May11

When did I first learn about love?

Did it happen with my baby’s first belly jiggling laugh or when she first looked into my eyes and said love you? Perhaps it was when I meet my now husband over Thanksgiving break from college.  And I felt a searing pain in my heart every time we had to separate while I finished out that long school year away from home, away from him. Or was it even when a stranger passing by on the street offered me the honor of a heart-felt smile?

The love I found in all of these profound experiences was based on a foundation built long ago near the beginning of my life.  And it was my mother who taught me about love, as most mother’s do.  She was my hero, my everything when I was a small child.  All that sweetness she had poured into me everyday filled me up and one day was solidified while I played in our backyard.

Nestled securely in the middle of my beloved tire swing, I was twisting the tire round and round.  With each successful turn a delightful popping kink of the hanging rope would gratify my efforts.  I struggled to keep my feet in place with each turn as the tension from the rope sought to undo all of my hard work.  Finally the rope, being all bunched up with tension, would go no further.  Looking forward to my destined ride, as I had a hundred times before, I lifted me feet from the ground, held on tight and with eyes closed I began a fast spin.  This time though, something went terribly wrong and in an instant I was slammed to the ground tangled up in tire and rope.  The rope had broken and I, being a very small child, was trapped beneath a tire to heavy to move.  Feelings of shock and pain began to consume me when an angel appeared to free me from the tire.  The angel was my mother.  I couldn’t imagine where she had come from or how she had known I need help but she was there right when I needed her.  Such a feeling of love and appreciation filled my heart that I was overwhelmed.  Turns out she was folding laundry and watching me from the window that looked out underneath our porch, while I had no idea she was anywhere nearby.  This was the moment, this moment when I really needed someone and that very special someone was there.  This was the moment when I learned about love in a deep yet conscious way.  While she rescued me from the swing, I felt the world become a safe and beautiful place.  I knew that she would be there for me when I needed her, that I could trust and believe.  And, as I moved forward into my life I carried this deep knowledge and used it to recognize love everywhere.

Even now I am blessed to learn more about love everyday.  Everyday with my kids and husband there is more to learn, more to experience.  Each day I witness acts of kindness and caring in the world, cherishing even the smallest of gestures.  Mostly what I am learning about now is love for myself and appreciation for life simply as it is. With each breath and each step I endeavor to appreciate and love myself, those around me, my world and embrace being alive.

 Thanks Mom!

Some Sweet Foot Lovin’ For Mother’s Day

May6

This time of year we are always busy preparing something for those loveliest of people…  Mommies.

This May we are making foot soaks for pampering hard-working feet and to go with it?  The cutest footprint butterflies!

FOOTPRINT BUTTERFLIES

We started on our butterflies yesterday.  They are really easy to make and the kids love it!  I think mostly because they get to have their feet painted and who wouldn’t get a kick out of that?  It tickles and it is silly!

For time purposes I drew the butterfly’s body for each child with their chosen color, though you could certainly have the child do this part.   Then they drew in the face.  We got some cute facial expressions!

With the butterfly body all set up, I had the child choose the colors for their butterfly’s wings and I asked them how they wanted their feet painted ~ all the colors on each foot?

Or one foot painted one color and the other foot another? With the kid sitting in a child-size chair, the fun began… we painted their feet and pressed them down on paper.

Lots of giggles ensued and with many other little ones watching on, we had a fun morning together.  Doing just one foot at a time made it easy to keep the mess under control.  I helped them place their foot in the right spot to make butterfly wings.

Then we finished with a quick rinse in a tub of water and I wiped their feet off with a towel I had on hand.

FOOT SOAKS

This coming week we are going to make foot soaks to go along with our butterflies.

Here is the recipe we are going to use:

  • 1 cup of Epsom salts
  • 1/2 cup of baking soda
  • 1 Tbs of ground ginger
  • 1 Tbs of lavender blossoms
  • A 4 to 8  drops of essential oil ~ I will let the children choose their favorite for their mommy from lavender, cedarwood, cardamom, ylang ylang, rose geranium, spearmint and rosemary.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir.  Tie off your bag with a pretty ribbon or twisty tie.  Add a label with information about the ingredients and how to use it.  This recipe will make enough for one to two mommies.  Increase the proportions as needed.  Easy Peasy!

Note:  Using a foot bath is easy and relaxing.  Just use a bowl or basin with enough room for your feet.  Fill it with warm water.  Put your feet and then your foot soak in and relax.  I like to keep a towel nearby to dry off with and a nice foot oil or shea butter to put on afterwards.  Then top off with some snuggly socks!  Heaven.  Heaven for Mommies….

THE GIFT

Often I will use simple brown paper bags at the preschool.  For gifts there is nothing better.  I let the kids decorate the bags and then we wrap up our gifts.  For Mother’s Day, I plan to package them all up something like this:

Pondering Meditation

Apr30

Perceptive Pint Size Ponderings For Your Monday Amusement

One of my favorite things about being with children is the insightful, funny and innocent things they say.  We have all heard them and hopefully had a heart warming, funny or ah-ha moment inspired by the sweetness of a child

Here is something particularly perceptive, amusing or wonderful that I had the honor of being part of…

One of my kids took her first steps on my yoga mat.  Little feet pressing steadily into the ground while she carefully raised her delightful body towards the sky.  Then she took a step and another and another.  This same little child now meditates when she is mad, which seems to happen most often in light of the morning at the bus stop.  (Well, let’s face it, getting ready to go in the morning can be a trial even on the best of days.)

So, it wasn’t really a surprise when recently during a particular anxious mommy moment she gazed at me with big wise brown eyes and said, “Momma, you really need to meditate.”

Rose Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens)

Apr28

Reblogged from Not Dabbling In Normal:

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My Gram always grew red geraniums in the summer. Each fall she would severely cut them back and they would sit through the winter on the high window ledge in the laundry room in our basement where it stayed cool. Those common geraniums have a district smell to them; sort of like a tomato plant has a district smells to them.

Read more… 612 more words

This is a lovely post by Sincerely, Emily with great ideas for using one of my favorite plants. Enjoy!

Butterfly Circle

Apr25

The magic of butterflies and caterpillars captivates children.

A flitter of colorful wings…

A fuzzy, fat, stripey bug creep crawling up a branch…

Discovering nature’s treasures like these instantly engage and enchant children (and me too!).

What better insect to choose for a close-up look at life cycles?  Last week we studied plant life cycles at the school so the children were already familiar with the idea.  I brought in an example butterfly life cycle that I had made with art scrapes from my stash: pompoms (perfect for caterpillar bodies), silk flowers and leaves (leaves to lay eggs on and flowers to pull apart and use for wings), pasta shells (cocoon) and multicolored popcorn (eggs).

As we sat in a circle, I shared the butterfly life cycle with the kids we talked about being scientists by looking at the world and observing what we see.  We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  As we read, we looked for parts of the butterfly life cycle.  We found the egg, and the cocoon and the butterfly; the kids really got it and I was impressed!

Next the kids made their own butterfly life cycles.

I gave them each a leaf to glue down on a piece of paper and then encouraged them to lay “eggs” on their leaves.

On we went including parts of the cycle.  I always love to present children with an idea and then let them take it from there and we had many creative life cycles when all was said and done!