Moments with Mommy

This weekend Joy and I had a wonderful time just spending some mother/daughter time.  It is so hard sometimes to find time one on one with our children.  What with homeschooling, the size of our family, chores, and everything else that goes along with managing a home, it is difficult to cultivate those special times to get to know our children and spend special time with them by themselves.  After talking it over with my dh, we came up with a plan to take each of our children out somewhere just one on one periodically.  I would start with the oldest and go down.  He would start with the youngest and go up.  I would be the first...and next time, it is his turn.  That way, no child is waiting too long before they have that special parent time.  In between some of these special times, we are going to be deliberate in making sure we plan times that we can all be together as a family and do things as well.  It looks as though we will not be able to take vacation as we had hoped this summer, so these are our mini-vacations!  It is a way to keep our children's hearts and hopefully it will provide lovely memories they will have for a lifetime.

This is before we left the house for our day out.  We had lunch at Jason's Deli.  Then, I took Joy to the yarn store to replenish her stock of yarn so she could finish her afghan. 

Aren't these yarn colors beautiful?  The store is a small one, but just lovely with all the delightful looking colors.

Once we left the yarn store, we headed downtown to the quilt store.  We were surrounded by so many different gorgeous fabrics, it was hard to see it all. 

There were quilts all over the walls as decoration.  I really like this one with the appliqued picture.  The flowers we made out of buttons!

This was another quilt on the wall.  I really like the colors of this one, too.

Afterwards, Joy and I went into a few more stores downtown.  We found some out of print Landmark books...that was a great deal!  Then we got a couple of drinks from a nearby gas station and headed to the park to just sit on a bench and enjoy the day together.

Now this was a most unexpected sight at the park.  At a distance...I thought this beautiful Macaw might just be fake...but it most certainly was not.  And when we arrived at this bench...his owner was no where in sight.  We were quite perplexed to say the least.

This is Joy "talking" with the bird.

After we had taken a few shots of the bird, the owner came back and allowed Joy to get a picture with the bird on her shoulder.  Then he talked with us for quite some time and we learned so much about parrots!  It was quite fascinating.  This particular bird goes with him lots of places, doesn't fly off and eats hamburgers, spaghetti, mac and cheese and while we were there he had a few french fries!

This is the owner showing us a few of his bird tricks.  We really enjoyed talking with him about his bird.

The next few pictures are of the nusery we went to after the park.  The flowers were amazing.  We both are extremely fond of flowers.  It is so nice to share some of these same interests with my children.  Joy has become a close friend as well as my daughter. 

We ended the day with aching feet, but happy hearts.  I have a feeling this is going to be one of the nicest alternatives to a vacation that we have ever had!  She thanked me many times for taking her and told me how much she enjoyed spending time with me alone.  But you know, I believe I was the one that was blessed the most!  I encourage you, if you do not already, make time to take your children out one on one.  It doesn't have to be for a long time and you don't even have to spend any money.  Just a time to let them know they have your undivided attention.  Just remember, you are investing for an eternity.  Shalom!