Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, I received some new additions to my Lush collection of bath bars, bombs, and melts. Thank you, Lauren, for remembering me - again - and surprising me with another gift in the mail.  My last gift from Lauren were the salt and pepper shakers in March.

Can you tell which one is the real egg from our chickens?

I love opening gifts that come in the mail.  (The one and only good thing about living far away from people you love).  If I did one thing right as a mother, it was teaching my kids to be good gift-givers! They both excelled in that category and I'm a very happy Mother for it.  If you don't know about Lush, check them out here: Lush   Now, I have Pop-in-the-Bath,  A French Kiss, Mum Tulip, Pink Bath Bomb to name a few.  I love taking baths so this is the perfect gift for me and Lauren knows it.   And Lush bath bombs looks so perfect in a basket next to the bathtub, so colorful and catchy!  If I didn't have a bathtub I'd probably buy them anyway because they are so beautiful and smell so gracious.  How can you not LOVE them!  I even love the names of the different ones.  I just took a bath last night and used the carrot, which is a bubble bar.  (I got it before Easter)  Do I dare say I take baths just so I can play with my latest Lush bath bar?   Nick is equally great at gift-giving, too.  He and Sachiyo sent me a set of "air vases".  What are "air vases", you ask?  Remember, they were in Japan for 5 months.  The package looked like a plain piece of paper but then you stretch them out and they mold into a air vase.

You can freely change their shape since they are just thin, lightweight paper.  I will probably use them for decoration since they are so delicate, yet very eye-catching.  

Don't they look neat from up-above?

Nick and Sachiyo also sent us some professional photos they had taken in Japan in traditional Japanese wedding attire.  They always wanted to do this so since they were in Japan for 5 months, they decided to have it done.   Here is a sample I took off of Skype before he sent them to me for Mother's Day.

This is a traditional Japanese pose, along with the traditional formal clothing of a Japanese wedding. There are some additional photos of Sachiyo in a beautiful kimono, too. I'm going to have one enlarged into an 8 x 10 but it might be hard to decide which one since they are all so neat. 

Happy Mother's Day to me!

But I can't go through Mother's Day without thinking about my own mother who passed away 3 years ago. I want to celebrate her even though she isn't here physically anymore.  I feel like she is still here and that this day ought to be about her, not me... even though I love getting all my presents… I am the mother I am because of her so she's the one who gets the credit.  I still feel her motherly love inside me and it shines through all the time, like when I feel like calling her to tell her about a bad day I had, or a good day I had, or the crazy thing that one of our animals did today, or a great recipe I made, or when I want to brag about Nick and Lauren (I could do that with her and she'd love to hear it) or when I have to do housecleaning or laundry, I'd just call her to put off doing my chores a little longer, or... on and on...I know what she would say so I don't have to call her anymore.  She's inside me talking to me all the time now.  So, Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!  I know you're listening.