Tag: #mydaughter

That’s True Love

My daughter will be gone most of the day, but we begin each day together. She makes a Chemex, because she has it down to a science, whereas I do not. I sit in the den anticipating that magical cup of brew.

This morning she did something so special. She has this coffee cup she knows I love. It’s just the right size, and I use it when she’s not here.  When she is here, she usually uses the cup, but not this morning.

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Blue bottle coffee cup.

She sat the cup on my side of the table.

This was a special moment to receive this cup from her. It was a small gesture, and maybe to some go unnoticed, but it’s how we show our love and care.

The smallest of things create magical moments.

While she is out and about adulting, I began thinking what I could do for her. We have this inside joke now that she is almost 20 years old. I tell her she doesn’t need me nearly as much as she thinks she does, but there is this one thing she loves for me to do. Wash her sheets in perfume wash.

She’s jokingly asked if I will come and change her sheets the rest of my life. Well darling, maybe not every week, but when time allows, I will do that. It was 32 degrees this morning, so her favorite flannel sheets are being washed in perfume for her bed.

For me, it was getting to use her cup in her presence, but for her it will be these sheets.

That’s true love.

Feel the Music

I tell my daughter to look for windows.

It’s not always a door God will open.

I’ve sang this song in my heart for her since she was small. Today, we sing it for one another.

One More Day

The words that come out of my daughter’s mouth during conversation is like visiting with Yoda.

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Tomorrow is my birthday.

I rolled out of bed with the Rolodex of this year, flipping through my mind. What have I accomplished? Am I on target with my goals?

She knows I do this twice a year.

The day before my birthday, and December 31st.

This morning she said something that shifted my perspective back to ‘the now’. She said,

Tomorrow you will not be a whole year older. You will just be one more day.

Thank you my darling daughter.

So Many Firsts

My daughter is at the eye doctor today.

She called and made an appointment yesterday to have her eyes checked. What an adult thing to do.

Earlier this week she made a GoFundMe page. That was a gutsy move. She must have heard me say, “No guts, no glory.” I’m in awe watching her set her sails.

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Photo by Vaibhav Kashyap on Pexels.com

We raise them to the best of our ability, and then watch them as they go.

I’m not going to try and catch you up on what all has happened. I will let her do that in her own words. She has changed/grown so much this year.

I feel like today, we hit a milestone. The beginning of the ‘Mission accomplished’ phase of the journey.

The day I left her father, she saw me truly follow my heart, and she’s been watching me do so ever since. It didn’t surprise me one bit when she said, “I want to spend Christmas in England this year.” It will be the first Christmas we didn’t celebrate together.

My daughter writes. Photography is her love, but her words add life to each photo. Here is the link to her Blog. Thank you for sitting here with me today as the grand list begins of so many firsts.

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My daughter as of yesterday. Her shirt says, “I’m the Daddy.”

The Clean Spot

Recently, my daughter told me something that I could have taken the wrong way. She said something to the affect of, “I’m not sure you taught me good things growing up.” Here is her example.

While she was growing up, I didn’t want to get upset over a spill, or if she dropped something on the floor, and it made a mess. I enjoyed showing her the proper way to clean up the mess. Life can get messy, and it was my job to show her what to do if it did.

I’m her Mama, not her lifetime repair woman.

To make light of the situation, I would tell her, “After you clean up that mess, it will be the cleanest spot in the house!”, and that became our motto.

She was at a friends house helping them do laundry.

She spilled some laundry detergent on the carpet.

The detergent was blue, and the carpet was white.

She said as she was down on her hands and knees, scrubbing the carpet, she was shaking her head and laughing at my voice in her head! She said out loud, “This is going to be one heck of a clean spot!”

She had heard those words many times before.

We were newly on our own, and standing in the check out line of a grocery store. The check out line was always a stressful moment because she was hoping I had enough money to pay for the purchases. What she didn’t know was, I had already tallied them up in my head to avoid embarrassment.

She wanted to be helpful, and insisted on carrying the milk to the car. She looked so small, holding that gallon of milk. It was gathering condensation being out of the cooler, and was slippery. She was trying to hold onto it, but it didn’t take long for it to slip from her hands, and go crashing to the floor.

She was sure everyone in the store was looking.

The gallon of spilled milk looked more like a lake.

The cashier sympathized, and called for a clean up.

I placed my arm around my daughter’s shoulders and guided her mortified body to the exit saying, “That’s gonna be one heck of a clean spot.”

Puzzles and Life

Meet Andy at the Blogsite Growing Pains. He wrote a piece that reminded me of a topic I was going to write about, and forgot. The puzzles of life.

When my daughter was learning to manage depression/anxiety, I was pondering what to do to help. My Mama worked a puzzle on the kitchen table at least once a month. I don’t know her exact philosophy behind this, but it brought us together as a family. One couldn’t walk by without stopping to help, and visit with Mama.

My daughter and I have a ginormous coffee table.

I went and bought a puzzle that spoke to my heart.

One I could leave laying out for days while we worked on it. We would spend hours sitting there together with 1,000 pieces scattered across the table.We talked about anything and everything.

To make something beautiful out of the chaos. This is how life can feel at times.

We had a love/hate thing going on with the puzzle. You couldn’t sit in front of it without trying to get a piece to fit, but our favorite pieces were last few. We felt accomplished when those final pieces would snap into place!

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In the Blog I read this morning, Andy’s puzzle fell and shattered. It wasn’t his fault, and he was distraught when he walked into the room and saw it scattered across the floor. He saw it as all their hard work being lost, but when he told his wife, I love her response.

She said, “I guess we have more work to do.”

That is what I wanted to reveal to my daughter.

What she is learning to manage will take work, but with every piece the puzzle will come together, and it will be beautiful.

Much love to you. xx Barb xx

Feel the Music

“When is the last time you wrote a Feel the Music?”, she asked.

It was one year ago God put this series on my heart. He even gave me the title.

There was a time in my life I stopped feeling the music. Sure, I would listen to the lyrics, but to let the music get inside and move you. That’s what this series is about.

When this song comes on the radio, my daughter grins.

My feet start tapping as I turn up the volume, and yell, “Whip whip!” It’s impossible to sit still during this song! She knows I love it and suggested it for Feel the Music.

My daughter has watched me begin writing less. She wants me to continue writing, but there has been a shift.

Writing isn’t the forefront of my life today. I’m living life and taking time to jot it down.

There have been many changes this year and there will be more. I’m to a point where I just want to be used by God however He sees fit. He has used me a lot in life and I have done and been a lot of things, but He’s not done yet!

I don’t want to step gracefully through the pearly gates.

I want to take a running start and slide through head first.

To live each day and roll with what He lays in front of me.

To make God proud. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.