Mother's Day is in five days! For about ten years of my life Mother's Day was a challenging day for me emotionally because I wondered if I'd ever be a mother. Finally, at the age of 36 I was pregnant with Nadia on Mother's Day, which made the day very different than previous ones. I was also pregnant on Mother's Day when I was 37 and 40. I really, really wanted to spend Mother's Day in 2016 with my mom, but she insisted I spend it with my children. I knew it would be her last Mother's Day on earth, and it was. Paul's mom passed away a few days after Mother's Day last year. I am very thankful for my mom, Paul's mom, and the fact that I've been blessed with three children on earth and more children in heaven. If I made a list of the biggest blessings in my life, my three kids would be near the top of that list. Friday night I took Nadia and Ian to a For King and Country concert in Binghampton, NY, which is a little over two hours from our home. Normally, I would not be willing to drive that far for a concert, but I love my kids very much and that group has been Nadia's favorite for several years. We paid $4 for parking but attended the concert for free as we were volunteers with Compassion. 105 children were sponsored that night! We had been signed up to volunteer at one of their concerts in Hershey in 2020, but it was postponed until October 2021, and I couldn't take them then because of my ankle surgery. Unfortunately, Ian got carsick for the first time in his life about 45 minutes after we left home. Cleaning up vomit is definitely one of my least favorite parts of motherhood. Some of my favorite moments include hugs, reading books together, worshipping together in church, doing service projects together, and making memories together on vacations, at amusement parks, field trips, etc. At the bottom of this post, I included a short video that a man from our church made on Saturday about a Voice of the Martyrs service project we participated in. The kids and I are in the video. Thankfully, he didn't show the time when a trailer crashed on my head. Ouch!!! The woman who witnessed the incident was afraid I had a concussion.
As I was growing up, the only pets we had were cats. When I moved to Annapolis in 1994, I took my cat, Snowflake, with me, but he had a very difficult time being left alone all day when my roommates and I were at work. I ended up taking Snowflake back to my parents' house, and he was much happier there. The next time I lived in a home with a pet was December 2016 when we got our first two guinea pigs. I've known other people who consider their dog to be their child. I never felt that way about a cat or the guinea pigs, but I admit I do feel like I'm a mom of Milo. He follows me around the house whether I'm collecting dirty laundry or vacuuming the carpet. When I go to the bathroom, he waits for me outside the bathroom door. My mom would have called him my shadow. Thankfully his behavior has improved a LOT over the last 16+ months that he's been in our family. We don't even lock him in the crate when we leave the house, although we still make sure the bathroom and bedroom doors are closed before we leave. He's turned into an obedient dog (most of the time anyhow) and has always been a very affectionate dog. Now to hope and pray that he will handle our vacation better than he did last September. He'll be spending most of our vacation with our next-door neighbors and Memorial Day weekend at a kennel. Unfortunately, he'll be spending a lot of time at home alone next week due to Nadia's lengthy drama rehearsals. Considering that for decades I wasn't fond of dogs, it's quite amazing to me how much I love Milo.
Physically I take after my dad more than my mom, but there are certainly ways I take after my mom. Enjoying planning vacations would be one example. Growing up my mom tried to include an industrial tour on our vacations when possible. I recently read a list of the 25 best factory tours in the USA. I have no idea why they included the White House on the list of factories. Of the 24 factories listed, we've been to five of them so far (Crayola, Henry Ford, Julius Sturgis, Turkey Hill, and Louisville Slugger). We have also been on other industrial tours that weren't included in this list such as Corning Glass, Hershey, Purity Candy, Martin Guitar, BWP Bat, Schimpff's Confectionery, Boone Creek Creamery, and Salt Works. We have plans to visit eight others from the list of twenty-four: Jelly Belly (2023), PEZ (2022), World of Coca Cola (2022), Utz (TBD), Ben & Jerry's (2022), American Whistle (2023), Boeing (2023), and Roasterie (2023). I had originally planned to visit Taza in September, but I think that one will be eliminated. We had tickets to tour the White House in 2020, but those were cancelled. I do want to take them there at some point over the next four years, but I don't consider the White House to be a factory. I also have plans to take the kids on some other industrial tours not included on the list such as the Harley Davidson factory (PA), Tabasco Factory (LA), Snyders of Hanover (PA), Whetstone Chocolate (FL), Herr's Snack Tour (PA), Mack Truck (PA), and Herbaria Soap (MO). I haven't given any thought yet to what we might see and do when we visit Alaska and Hawaii so it's possible that I might add another industrial tour to the list in the future.
Speaking of planning vacations, I've had to make several changes to our upcoming vacation recently. Flexibility is vital! I had to eliminate Monocacy Battlefield (which thrilled Nadia and was a big disappointment to Paul), Discovery Science Center, Billy Graham Library, Cedar Creek and Belle Grove, C&O Canal, the National Museum of the Mighty 8th Air Force, and the St. Augustine Lighthouse due to changes to the days of the week the site is open or construction. I added some new stops to replace some of the ones that were deleted such as Shenandoah National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Catoctin Mountain, National D-Day Memorial, and Booker T. Washington. The kids will still have the opportunity to earn a total of twenty Junior Ranger badges during the vacation. They are most excited about the two beach days, four amusement park days, and swimming with the manatees.
I love my husband and children very, very much, but celebrating birthdays, Christmas, Mother's Day, etc. is not their forte. There have been years when my birthday wasn't celebrated at all. This year I planned a special outing for the family on my birthday, and I'm glad I did because I received three birthday cards this year - one from my dad/Margie, one from a lady in our Sunday School class, and one from my friend Tab's sons. I received two gifts. Ian and Nadia together purchased a digital book for me, which I read a few days after my birthday, and my dad/Margie are going to pay for a new door for our home. It wasn't intentional, but it so happens that I scheduled a special outing for the family on Mother's Day this year, so the day will be special even if I don't receive anything. We are headed to Pittsburgh! Nadia wanted to see the Stars on Ice show for the first time, and we're also planning to visit the Carnegie Science Center for the second time. We didn't watch the Winter Olympics at all this year, but we're looking forward to seeing some of the ice skaters in person! When we visited the Carnegie Science Center in December 2016 with my dad, we weren't able to tour the USS Requin submarine in the Ohio River, but we should be able to tour it on Sunday.
1 comment:
That Carnegie Science center is quite a museum. We were able to go for 2 days a few years ago and so we were able to make it to the submarine. Definitely, claustrophobia-inducing for some of us. I look forward to hearing more about your trip. It sounds like a great time!
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