Bloom where you are - Happy Mothers Day

Sunday, Mothers Day, May 10, 2020
My beautiful mama - I get a chance to wish her a Happy Mothers Day. Tech can be wonderful!

Supposedly she's taking it easier every year, but she admits that she's gardening, walking outside a few times a day, and still cleaning. "I'm not what I used to be," she grumbles. Who would, with three 60-something-yr-old kids?

On a MD call from one of our sons, his daughter recites James 1. It's a LONGGGGG chapter - and she's got it! She contorts her body so she can focus on the words. W and I keep giggling as her body twists and turns. In this pic, we can see part of her face. Sometimes she disappears completely behind her long limbs. Her little brother photo-bombs her but she's working hard and doesn't notice. W and I smile.

Friday night:
Andrea does a zoom call to teach us to make apple pie. I'm salivating, imagining the fragrance of apples and cinnamon. I don't have enough apples and want to concentrate on instructions. What to grab?

I pull out my little junk journal so I can paint, glue, and mark and write my way across its pages throughout the hour. Nothing fancy, just movement that lets me focus on Andrea's lesson. Here are a few pages.

Saturday, W goes to the grocery store and brings back baking apples. So I make a pie. I remember most of the recipe and just wing it. I'm not a pie baker, but this is delicious. It tastes like my mom's and makes me miss her even more.

There are so many flowers in the yard. While I weed, I pluck some and take them into the house. This little copper mug stuffed with pink coleus and an Aussie shrub stands in the back hall.

Two vases with hydrangea and dill land on the LR end tables.

On the LR coffee table, the Thursday rose from #RuthsRibs is still blooming. Can you tell that I chopped tons of dills off the shrub in the back? It's 4'X4' and keeps growing so I have to prune it back and back every month or so.

As I was hacking through the garden, I took out some prolific 8' high (2.6 meter) flowering stems. I'd tucked a few seeds in my pocket while going through a friend's field last year. The plants keep growing and blooming from the time they're about 2' tall. They reseed around the yard.

We tear them out when they reach head height and start to shade other flowers. These got away from me; I haven't seen the maximum height, but have had a 3' (3 meter) one before removal.

The tips are in full bloom so I shove some into a tall vase. The arrangement in the entry is 3' (1 meter) tall. Every morning, new blossoms open up. It's quite spectacular. And simple to do.

Thinking back through the dozen or so Zoom calls in the last days, I remember a special one on Thursday. We had a third online meeting with longtime friends from Washington State and Idaho. It's wonderful when friendships continue over decades.

This week's host is in his 50s but he was a youth pastor when our kids were little. Such fun to see everyone continuing to love and serve God into old age. We pray for each other after giving updates of what's new in the circles around us.

Well, that's it for today. Our eighth Sunday online service is over (BIC ONLINE replay available here).

It's time for a Mothers Day lunch. How nice to have Kirsten here for another beautiful day in our neighborhood. Of course, we miss our other kids and parents, too ... just like you do if you're in isolation. In some ways, you understand the distance of cross-cultural work better now than ever before, right?

May God's blessings rest on each of you - especially you hard-working young moms. And peace to those who remember and celebrate their own mothers this day. Hugs and warm greetings from Indonesia.

Read more:
*The Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings. Deuteronomy 2:7

*It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. 1 Corinthians 4:2

*Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. 

Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:15-20

Moravian Prayer: Loving Jesus, empower us to be trustworthy stewards of your church. We pray for all who answer your call to serve as lay leaders and ordained clergy. Bless them with patience, courage, and understanding. Amen.