Will and I went to a Mother-Son Halloween Dance Friday night. We had a great time playing games, dancing and looking at all the cool costumes. The most memorable part for me was watching the "mini-Darth Maul" do the robot dance. Where is a camera when you really need it?
Monday, October 30, 2006
Mother-Son Halloween Dance
Will and I went to a Mother-Son Halloween Dance Friday night. We had a great time playing games, dancing and looking at all the cool costumes. The most memorable part for me was watching the "mini-Darth Maul" do the robot dance. Where is a camera when you really need it?
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
This excerpt was sent to me by my sister Jill, who received it from her dear friend Kelly Bates-Felany, who lost her mom last January to ovarian cancer. It is from “Saving Graces” by Elizabeth Edwards. They are comforting and inspiring words to many of us who have lost a parent.
Pg 119
I wrote to Steve, who was so disconsolate over the death of his mother that he could not even summon anticipation for the upcoming birth of his first child.
Thank you for talking about your mother. My son died in April. I ask God daily to take me instead of taking my boy. I often think of what he would feel if God granted my wish and Wade lived and I died. He would, I think, be much like you, disoriented and lonely. I speak to you now as I would speak to Wade if he stood in your place.
You are my precious son. In the months I had you inside me and the years I had you beside me, I imagined for you every happiness. As you were my firstborn Child, I had to learn to be a mother. I learned the names of trees so I could teach them to you. I would finish the books I read to you even after you fell asleep, with the same cadence and inflection listening in the pauses to your deep breath. I would hunt for old lullabies to sing to you, picking out the tune on the piano until I had made the song my own, your own. And later I stayed up all night typing your papers as you dictated. I searched the stores for the special box for your first corsage. And I bored you with parables so that you would know instinctively the way to be a good man. You never failed me.
There was never a point in my parenting you when I would have chosen to hurt you the way you hurt now. And I grieve to think that in death I have caused you this pain, that I have made you feel even that the birth of your child will be insufficient joy. I meant to give you life. And when I died, knowing I had done all I knew to do to give you that joy, I died satisfied. My most important work was done. And now my death undoes that, unwraps my work, and leaves you with the tethers to character and strength and compassion that I worked so hard, so lovingly, to tie.
But son, the best of me did not die. I gave the best of me to you. All I valued and all I cherished, all I knew and all I dreamed, I gave to you. It can die, of course, if you let it. Or it can live the full and magnificent life I hoped for you. And you can teach that baby all I taught you about living well, and I will live on again. My legacy – my life’s work – is in your hands. Take hold of life, son. It is all I really hoped for in life or in death.
Pg 119
I wrote to Steve, who was so disconsolate over the death of his mother that he could not even summon anticipation for the upcoming birth of his first child.
Thank you for talking about your mother. My son died in April. I ask God daily to take me instead of taking my boy. I often think of what he would feel if God granted my wish and Wade lived and I died. He would, I think, be much like you, disoriented and lonely. I speak to you now as I would speak to Wade if he stood in your place.
You are my precious son. In the months I had you inside me and the years I had you beside me, I imagined for you every happiness. As you were my firstborn Child, I had to learn to be a mother. I learned the names of trees so I could teach them to you. I would finish the books I read to you even after you fell asleep, with the same cadence and inflection listening in the pauses to your deep breath. I would hunt for old lullabies to sing to you, picking out the tune on the piano until I had made the song my own, your own. And later I stayed up all night typing your papers as you dictated. I searched the stores for the special box for your first corsage. And I bored you with parables so that you would know instinctively the way to be a good man. You never failed me.
There was never a point in my parenting you when I would have chosen to hurt you the way you hurt now. And I grieve to think that in death I have caused you this pain, that I have made you feel even that the birth of your child will be insufficient joy. I meant to give you life. And when I died, knowing I had done all I knew to do to give you that joy, I died satisfied. My most important work was done. And now my death undoes that, unwraps my work, and leaves you with the tethers to character and strength and compassion that I worked so hard, so lovingly, to tie.
But son, the best of me did not die. I gave the best of me to you. All I valued and all I cherished, all I knew and all I dreamed, I gave to you. It can die, of course, if you let it. Or it can live the full and magnificent life I hoped for you. And you can teach that baby all I taught you about living well, and I will live on again. My legacy – my life’s work – is in your hands. Take hold of life, son. It is all I really hoped for in life or in death.
Monday, October 16, 2006
A Day at the Apple Orchard
We met Jan & Bill and Brian, Nicole and Finn at Minnesota Harvest Apple Orchard in Jordan on Saturday. It was a gorgeous autumn day and we had a great time! 
We took a tractor/wagon ride out to the apple orchard to pick some apples. They were delicious!
We tried to get a nice "Christmas Card Picture"...but most of them turned out like this! Am I the only one prepared, or what???
Will and Madison outside the corn maze.
Madison, Will and Finn stopping for a rest during our walk through the corn maze. It was really cool...I think you really could get lost!
Nicole and Finn nearing the exit...at last!
The kids liked the petting zoo - goat slime and all...
Fall Fling
Madison and her Brownie Scout troop had "Fall Fling" on Friday night. They decorated pumpkins, made crafts, played games and had snacks. As they say in my hometown, "a good time was had by all..."
Friday, October 06, 2006
When's the Premiere?
Well, we're getting closer! The chairs are in, the screen is up; now all we have left to do is get the CRT calibrated and pick the movie...I wonder what Bill will do with all his extra time???...
Brownie Scout Hayride
Madison's brownie scout troop went on a hayride in Hanover last Sunday afternoon. It was an unseasonalbly beautiful day - over 80 degrees! It was a great day to be outside, but not roasting marshmallows over a bonfire!!! We had a great time with the girls. They spent most of the hayride playing hide & seek in the hay. I didn't know it was possible to "loose" somebody in a 18x10 foot bed of hay...but it is! I guess I have to give them a break, they're only 2nd graders:)
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