All Flowers

One Mother’s Day about 23 years ago, when all these little dudes looked like this—my sister and I had a brilliant idea. We lined most of our kids up by the hearth at mom’s house and had them sing. Oh, my did they sing! To my memory, they sang every Mother’s Day song ever written but ended with mom’s favorite–“I Often Go Walking.”

“I often go walking in meadows of clover,
And I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue.
I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over,
Dear Mother, all flowers remind me of you.

Oh Mother, I give you my love with each flower
To give forth sweet fragrance a whole lifetime through
For if I love blossoms and meadows and walking,
I learn how to love them, dear Mother, from you.”
–Phyllis Luch

At the end, all these little sweethearts handed her a tiny flower. It was beautiful and the best part about it was that…she cried. That always meant it was the perfect Mother’s Day gift.

 

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Happy May Day!

Back in the old days–when May 1st would come around, all the grade school kids would parade out on to the playground and each class would do a well rehearsed dance for all the parents. We practiced for weeks during our regular recess time so there was a ton of stress to do it perfectly…which of course, we did. The only hitch would be if the record–being played over the P.A. system would skip and no one would have a clue what to do. That was funny to watch…not so funny to be involved in.

Couple of things of note in this picture–

First: Being at the very end of the line means that I was officially the tallest girl in the fifth grade. Wowww–that was a big pain because it also meant, at that age that I was taller than all the boys too.  And those are some mighty big feet for a 10 year old. Again, I say wowww.

Second: Check out all those “bobby socks.” They were all the thing…you must trust me on this.

Third: I positively loved this skirt. It had cute little baskets with puppies on it. I was teased mercilessly whenever I wore it, because, well…you don’t see any other skirts with, you know…puppies, do you? Didn’t think so. But I liked it anyway, so when I was feeling particularly brave enough to be laughed at, I’d wear it.

Lastly, after all these years, I can still remember the names of the girls in line by me. Skeptical? Well, here goes:

Me, Peggy, Estelle, Lori Takiuchi, Gloria Estrada, Michi Jones, Donna Imigawa, and Valerie. Don’t you think I deserve a prize for that? I accept Cheetos and Symphony bars at the door…shamelessly.

Anyone besides me remember May Day dances at school? Tell me about it…please.

Happy May Day everyone!

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The Hunt

It’s been a long, long time since there’s been a real, live family Easter egg hunt at this place. Yes, we are wearing coats on this beautiful…ahem…spring day. Oh, well…

I’m pretty sure the last time this lawn saw colored eggs, was when all these parents were the little guys.

But the dashing for eggs looks like the same magical fun.

The eggs are “hidden” properly in plain sight…

so today’s itty bittys can find them…

and snatch them up just like their mamas and daddies did…

a million years ago.

There were even a few left behind…for ahhhh….later.

All of this has happened so many times before…

but it still feels brand new to me.

What a lovely day!

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Saturday

This moment…

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from our lives.

A simple, special, memorable moment.

A moment I want to pause, savor and keep close to my heart.

If you are inspired to do the same–leave us a link in the comments.

Happy weekend everyone.

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Little Miss No Name

As some of you may remember–I’ve written many posts about my childhood dolls because I was just crazy about them and even gave a prize if someone could name them all. Yesiree–I was totally in love with dolls. In fact, I used to believe that as soon as I fell asleep at night, they all came to life and played in my room with the other toys.

One year I saw a commercial for a doll that was really, really…um…not very pretty. Actually she was positively scary looking. But in my nine year old mind I was convinced that no one on earth would ever buy her or ask for her for Christmas–and that made me very sad–indeed.

The idea of her sitting for a million years in a toy store with no one ever taking her home made me sick. I thought about it and thought about it and came to the conclusion that the only Christian thing to do was to ask for her for my own birthday so she could finally have a home and I could give the poor thing some love. It would change her life–I knew it!

My mom asked me over and over if I was sure she was the doll I really wanted–and over and over I said, “She’s the only one I want.”

So Little Miss No Name is exactly what I got. I loved her and changed her clothes and put her hair in pony tails but no matter how hard I tried, she still made that same sad face. I decided that giving her a good home was the least I could do even if it never really made her happy.

I’ve kept her all these years and never had a minute of regret over choosing the poor little wretched thing. That is, until my brother’s mean old friend told me that my sweet, humanitarian-service-project-of-a-doll looked exactly…

like…

me.

Rats.

How do these things happen?

Before you judge me too harshly, check out the most emotionally manipulative commercial on the planet.

Little Miss No Name

Little Miss No Name