Happy birthday, Mom

It’s the season of birthdays. We celebrate the Babe of Bethlehem with color and sound and joyous events. Families gather, and hearts are full.

Speaking of families and speaking of birthdays, ours celebrates a big one today. My mother was born in this Advent season just one week before Christmas right here in Indiana. Here she is in their home on Gabey’s first Christmas: FacebookTwitterGoogle+DiggPinterestBlogger

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mom is a homemaker extraordinaire. From her, I learned how to cook, clean, and keep a house. She encouraged the arts of baking and cooking, urging her daughters to try new recipes even as young girls. I remember her bragging on me to extended family when I baked my first cake. (It was sour cream, if I remember correctly.)

Mom doesn’t speak of it herself and would be uncomfortable if you did, but she is an amazingly talented woman. Possessed of a very artistic nature, she took classes in knitting, tole painting, and drawing. Some of her drawings hang, framed, on the walls of their home. Her painting decorates some of our own household furniture.

She can decorate, that creative woman can. Oh, how she can decorate! While this poor girl has to see a picture and can’t visualize a grouping to save her life, Mom can whisk in, put this and that together, and – voila! Beauty! Their log house displays her flair for interior decorating, and many people have found rest there in their home.

“The hostess with the mostest…” That’s Mom. Her spiritual gift is very clearly Hospitality with a capital H. She loves it. She excels at it. And people love her for it.

She pours herself into her grandchildren (she has 11) who are some of the brightest spots in her life.

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you and thank the Lord for all the beauty that is you.