Friday, May 10, 2013

A Blessed Nest

I enjoy two different blog prompts on Fridays and have decided I'll sometimes do both. Course I'll sometimes not do either one so it all balances out in the end.

Guess which one this is?
Ha-Friday Fragments...how could you tell?

Half-Past Kissin' Time

I went with some friends to see the film 42 this week. What a great story, so inspiring. Sometimes I think about all the hate in this world, and wonder how we got here. Then I see a movie like this, and am reminded hate is nothing new. I'm also reminded that one or two people being brave, acknowledging that words do indeed matter, who do the right thing when doing nothing is so much easier, can really and truly change the world, or at least their little part of it.


The road I travel to the gym every day takes me by a small horse farm. I am totally in love with the little bitty colts I see when I pass, all hanging close to their mamas. Yesterday I had to stop and snap a few photos, because babies grow up ya know!


I love presents. Just thought I'd throw that out there-ha! I won't have either of my girlies home for the Mother's Day weekend (sniff), but they did send me some wonderful things in the post which I've already opened and enjoyed.

Hello Jordan Almonds.


When Daughter2 was home we were browsing through the Harry and David catalog and I mentioned to her that I have a thing for all their beautiful packaging. I love their pears, but what I really love are the boxes they come in, the way they're stacked and all tied together with a pretty bow.

Look what I got!


I almost didn't want to open it, because seeing all those colors stacked one against the other, and then wrapped with a soft pale blue ribbon, made me inexplicably happy.

Rest assured I did open it eventually...fresh pears, yogurt covered pretzels, buttery cookies with raspberry filling that will be perfect with a cup of afternoon tea...strawberry chocolates, a gourmet popcorn mix, and of course the Jordan Almonds.

Another box arrived from my girls too, and inside was this-


I love it! I phoned them to say thank you and they explained that a very good friend of mine in Maryland made the bag. She's a talented seamstress who also makes jewelry and baby stuff and costumes for your kids when they're in a school play if you ask her nicely. Anyway, Daughter1 went to a little party she had in her home and bought this bag for me.

I love the color orange, chevron, good friends, sweet daughters, and Fridays. Also beautiful boxes, fun bags, and pastel colored candy coated almonds. I'm still on the fence about hedgehogs.

My girls also sent these-


Hot pink notecards with a tiny little hedgehog emblazoned on the front.

The three of us lived through the Great British Hedgehog Caper back in 2006, and they've never let me forget it. I've written about it before, but in a nutshell I reached into our backyard pond to pick up what I thought was a leaf, but which was in fact, a dead baby hedgehog floating upside down.

I went temporarily insane and my girls came running. They had to fish that thing out of the pond themselves using the tried and true shovel and bucket method while I cowered behind the back door, shrieking "I TOUCHED A DEAD BABY HEDGEHOG! EWEWEWEWEW!"

Since that day, whenever any one of us stumbles across hedgehog themed gear, we buy it. I got them each a hedgehog ornament for Christmas this year, and they bought me these sweet little note cards for Mother's Day.

I know some of you are scratching your heads thinking, 'what's the big deal-hedgehogs are so cute', but you pick up a soggy dead one without realizing what you're doing, and I guarantee you'll see them differently too.

That mama bird I mentioned last week has been like most mamas I know-busy! She's constructed a nest and she and the mister are hangin' out in the tree just outside my living room. No pretty blue eggs that I can see yet, but she's definitely 'nesting'. She's still occasionally flinging herself into the window, so I did a little reading in my bird book and learned that robins can produce three broods in a single year. Hmmm...that might explain the head banging.


Happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading here today...I hope your day is blessed!

18 comments:

  1. Happy Mother's Day, Joyce! Lovely gifts from your girls.

    ReplyDelete
  2. During the a-z challenge and now with the road trip afterwards, I'm amazed how many linky's are out there that I didn't know about. (and I thought I knew about quite a few). Nice pictures. I believe there is alot of good in the world, it's just we don't see it on the news.
    Oozing Out My Ears

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the colors in that bag! Summer bags are so fun and I am slightly addicted to them :-)
    Happy Mother's Day!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love the little foals. I would also have to stop to take photos. Lovely gifts from your girls. Happy Mother's Day to you.
    We still have the robin flying at our window... I thought she had stopped. No sign of a nest though (I think she's too busy attacking the window to lay eggs). :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wonderful gifts from your girls...I love the bag! Happy mother's day to you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Horses are so beautiful.
    I'd be pretty grossed out too if had picked up a dead hedgehog. Yuk.
    Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow! Don't let my Mum see this she's gonna think I don't love her enough!!

    Your story of the 'Great British Hedgehog Caper' made me smile. Memories like that are funny to look back on.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 3 in a year? Yeah, I'd be banging my head too. haha

    I totally love that bag. I seem to have a thing for bags and purses right now. Not sure why. Most ladies seem to be that way about shoes, but me...it's bags.

    Happy Mother's Day!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, we were just visiting our grands in a "horse town" and loved seeing all the horses and colts! Beautiful creatures, even if I am scared of them because they're bigger than me!

    What sweet, sweet daughters!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Loved all the photos. Loved the gift boxes. Happy Mother's Day to you!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love stories like that that make things important - like a dead hedgehog :) those "you had to be there" moments :)

    Love the goodies you got!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh wow! Your girls spoiled you for Mother's Day, didn't they? Sorry they won't be there, but you know they'll be there in spirit. Like I will be for my mom, since she's 3000 miles away. :)

    That whole hedgehog scenario is hysterical!! I would have freaked out if I had accidentally picked up a dead soggy hedgehog from the pond, too. ;)

    Happy Mother's Day! :)

    Orphan Black Phenomenon, Princess Nagger’s Artistic Mad Skillz, Office Supply Art Fun

    ReplyDelete
  13. I plan on seeing that movie next week. Mark is going out of town and he doesn't want to see it. I've heard excellent things about it. Just look at those sweet little colts :)
    Those are wonderful gifts you received. Happy Mother's Day to you....you are loved. ((HUGS))

    ReplyDelete
  14. That poor mama bird!! So many babies, she is allowed to bang her head into the window, eh??

    Your girls are so sweet, what wonderful gifts!!

    We had the misfortune of finding a dead mole in our yard in MD. That is so gross!!! Thankfully I have boys who were very happy to bury it after studying it for a bit ;-) Everyone had nice scrubbed hands after that!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lovely gifts. I love horses. I was privileged to watch a baby horse take her first steps when I was a child. My neighbors horse had a baby and I watched her grow. pretty cool.

    ReplyDelete
  16. soggy dead hedgehog - damn that's a great blog name
    I post once about women and pillows. I might need to offer my opinion in post on women and boxes.
    Depending on how long the hedgehog was dead I guess I might be upset too. Now I need to listen to stairway to heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Your daughters are so sweet!!
    I want to see 42 also, and I have the book 7 Men to read, and Jackie Robinson is one of the 7 men Eric Metaxas features. I need to start reading that!
    The hedgehog story?! Oh. My. Word. I literally put my hand over my mouth. Why? Maybe I was going to scream? I have no idea, but...yuck. Yuck. Yuck. I had to have a neighbor come over and fish a poor half-dead rabbit out of our pool years ago, because Mike was out of town and there was NO WAY I was going to do it. EVER. I am with you on that one. I don't think I would ever recover from such an event. *shudder*

    ReplyDelete
  18. Happy day after Mother's day! I loved the movie "42" also... it's so wonderful to have a movie made, and seen/popular, that is about real heroes, and that can give us hope. it's definitely a movie all ages can and SHOULD see!

    ReplyDelete