My First Mother's Day

This past Sunday was my first Mother's Day as a mother. Last year, I was pregnant on Mother's Day, but only a few people knew about it. There was an awkward moment last year at a church Mother's Day brunch because my mom, mother in law, and one other person knew I was pregnant, but I wasn't making it public yet, so when we were acknowledging all the moms and expecting moms, a few knowing grins were exchanged when I didn't stand up as "expecting".

Mother's Day started out with Brandon making breakfast. It was a simple canned cinnamon roll batch, but it's one of my favorites for breakfast and I was happy. I found a sweet note - in true Brandon fashion.

We got ready for church and had youth Sunday School in our living room. Only two students showed up, but Brandon preached the Word faithfully as usual. I ducked out a little early to get Asher dressed and ready.

My sister Kourtney and nephew Westin came to church with us, as we were having Asher's Baby Dedication. The boys were very cute, reaching for each other and all. Westin tried to sing along when the choir sang their special music. I had to take Asher down to the nursery for a few minutes because he was getting fussy, but I got back upstairs in time to come forward after the invitation.

We went to our pastor a few weeks ago to ask if our church does anything for Baby Dedications. Now this isn't like infant baptism in any way: we know that our decision does not save our baby; Asher will have to come to the Lord on his own. Rather, a baby dedication is simply a time where we as parents vow to raise our child(ren) in the training and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

Baby dedication is modeled after Hannah's dedication of Samuel to the Lord, as chronicled in 1 Samuel. In her case, she actually gave Samuel to God, in that once he was weaned, she took him to the temple of the Lord and left him there to be raised as a priest/prophet under Eli. In our case, we acknowledge that Asher belongs to God, and we as his parents are here to raise him up in a godly manner.

We went through a responsive reading, vowing to set an example for Asher and to teach him the ways of God. The congregation agreed to help in reinforcing what is being taught at home and seen at church, and to keep us accountable in our endeavor to teach Asher diligently.

I received a large hanging flower basket for being the mother of the youngest child, and church was over. On the way out of church, we saw a dripping wet dog (it was raining). Ol' Woody chewed his way out of his collar again, and proceeded to run up the church steps - smelling like a wet dog - to greet everyone. Brandon took him to our basement, where he stayed until we could get him a new collar. That's probably the tenth collar we have bought him. Anyone have suggestions for getting a dog to quit chewing? (And digging?)

Most of the rest of the day was spent relaxing at home. We went to the evening service at church, then visited each of our moms for a few minutes.

Brandon's mom has some cute puppies.  We actually thought about getting one, and I even had a cute one picked out (the one on the left) but we decided we can't get another dog if we can't take care of the one we have. I've been working on playing with Woody more often: we're trying to train him to stay in the yard while we're outside with him: other times he's on a tie out/ trolley system thing. We'd like to get an underground fence for him, but those things get pretty expensive.

Anyways, my first Mother's Day went very well. I was glad to get to spend it with my sweet guys, taking it easy at home.

Oh! And yesterday, the biggest part of my Mother's Day treats arrived: Ashley! :) She and two of Brandon's sisters came over and spent the afternoon spoiling Asher, cleaning our bathrooms, windows, and kitchen floor, and dusting and vacuuming and folding laundry. It felt good to be able to sit back and relax a little, while someone else got our house squeaky clean.



It also helped Ashley - she's been fundraising to go on a mission trip to Africa and a trip to Washington D.C. this summer, so she's been cleaning houses and having bake sales like crazy (and crazy good! I LOVE her white chocolate chip cookies!). I'm so excited for her, because I went to Africa in 2009 and I know how awesome an experience it can be. So, if you'd like to order some baked goods or need your house cleaned, let me know and I'll let her know! Everyone wins! :)