Creative Play

Trip up Mineral King Road with Deby Cook on Wednesday morning captured many wild flowers. Tincture Plant (Far left) 2) Slender Larkspur (near left) 3) Queen Anne's Lace (Below)

Today we celebrate Maria. Kay, step-mother-in-law, Lavonne, mother-in-law, and I, mother of the heart, will take her to lunch at Vintage Press, a nice restaurant in Visalia. Her mom is ill and lives too far away, so we stand in her stead. Alex, the son, will appear for a few minutes, flowers in hand to surprise her. We are bringing individual gifts we each made, and some crisp bills to add up to her 50 years of life, but our main goal is to surround her in motherlyness. Does she need this? Probably not. But we do. It is shocking to have your children reach half a century. Time moves so fast. It seems only yesterday the 14 year old tiny girl showed up at my side to apprentice me in the infant program. By 16 she called me "Mom," and has ever since. Her son I consider the first grandson. My eldest son is moving toward fifty, his brother 3 years behind. Delia, my step-daughter, is 18 and in college. Decades have past. Six grandchildren call me Granny. I look back and feel so luck...