3 Days Left to Enter My Honor Mom Giveaway

Only a few more days until I draw the two winners of my Honor Mom Giveaway. Contest is open to USA and Canada and entrants must be over 18. You can enter by sending an e-mail to annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com or leaving a comment here on this post with a way to contact you. 

Two winners will be picked by random drawing and one winner will get a beautiful NKJ Study Bible and one of my books and the other winner will get a complete set of my Rosey Corner books: Angel Sister, Small Town Girl, and Love Comes Home. The last book, Love Comes Home, just won the Selah Book of the Year Award. I'm still floating a little off the ground about that. :) Then today I had a guy friend tell me he'd read Love Comes Home and then went back and read Small Town Girl. I told him he might as well go on and read Angel Sister too even if he did go backwards through the books. I was pleased that he said he was right in the story and it didn't hurt that he hadn't read them in order.

Many of you have sent in heart-warming stories about your mothers with your entries. That wasn't a requirement to enter, but it's always fun when you share your stories. You had so many great stories that I won't be able to share them all, but I think you will enjoy these I am sharing today.

Corsages for Mother's Day

First here's one from Bonnie with a memory of how it used to be at churches on Mother's Day as she also shares how her mother is on the dementia path now. One I know too well after walking it with my mother. Bonnie says:

"I can't recall a specific Mother's Day that stands out from the rest - however, one memory is of my mother and I always having a corsage to wear to church on Mother's Day, when I was young. A practice that doesn't seem as popular anymore. As my mother is now in the early stages of Alzheimer's, I'm even more aware of the fact that I might not have her much longer, mentally or physically, and the need to take advantage of the time I do. She has always been an optimistic person, and remains so, even in the face of her disease - confident of God's plan for her life." 

May the Lord bless both you and your mother as you treasure good moments together, Bonnie.

Just an Old Wives' Tale

Now here's a story from Anne about her mother who didn't mind telling the doctor she was an "old wife."

Hi--my favorite "mother" story took place when I was less than a week away from giving birth to my daughter in 1987. My mother had come to stay with me and be with me for the birth. On Monday of that week (my daughter was born on Thursday) Mom went with me to my doctor's appointment. She asked him about the possibility of the baby coming on the day of the full moon that week. He said "Oh, that's just an old wives' tale." To which she responded "Well, I'm an old wife." Sure enough, the full moon was Thursday.

Mom has been gone now for 22 years, but I've made sure our family doesn't forget her or this story.

Thanks, Anne, for sharing your story with us. Sometimes those old wives knew.

A Lesson Learned on Mother's Day

Last we hear this extra sweet story from Felicia on a day she got a wake-up call about Mother's Day when her daughters gave her gifts from the heart.

"I'll share my favorite Mother's Day story although it's one I learned a lesson in. I was pregnant with my 5th child and we didn't have a lot of money. Only my husband was working. I was hot and miserable because we lived in Florida and my due date was July 16th. I had a hard time sleeping mostly because we had a water bed!!! I had to have my husband turn the heat off on it; I was just too hot. And we can't afford air conditioning, cable or even a phone! So I am sleeping in and my two oldest daughters are banging on my door. They are excited and I am grumpy. And I yelled at them for waking me up!! But it's Mother's Day so I get my grumpy self out of bed and go out into the living room and see what they want.

They had bought me gifts. They had saved their allowance and then went to yard sales our neighbors had and bought me presents for Mother's Day. They even made me cards! I was humbled after that. In awe of their creativeness and felt really terrible for having snapped at them. For wallowing in self pity when I couldn't see I had the greatest life of all!

For me it was the best Mother's Day because I realized at that point that I wasn't being the best Mother I could be. Not just Mother but person. And after seeing the thoughtfulness of my daughters and how much time and preparation went into it, I was just so appreciative. And grateful for the wake up call that Mother's Day.I remind myself of this day whenever I have a bad one. I learned a valuable lesson from my 2 daughters who were 7 & 9 years old!

Love your story, Felicia. All us moms understand your grumpiness. Pregnant and suffering in the heat! We'd be grumpy too. Then our hearts, like yours, are melted by the sweetness of your daughters. Thanks for sharing with us. 

Hope you all enjoyed the stories tonight. I'll let you know who wins on Sunday or maybe early Monday morning. A former pastor is coming to visit this weekend. So time for blogging may be limited.

As always, thanks for reading.

A Buttered Up Birthday

Have you ever churned butter? We used to have a butter churn a lot like this one, but somehow with the passing of time, the churn is gone. I  suppose it was sold when my mother had a farm auction after my dad died. I don't remember, but we didn't find it in the house now. Not that I wanted to churn any butter. For that you need a milk cow, one that produces rich milk because you need cream to make country butter. 

So how do you make butter out on the farm? 

First, you milk the cow. Not something I ever learned to do, but my mother could and my husband milked cows when we were young and trying to make a living farming. He brought the milk that we were going to use to the house (sold the rest of it in milk cans) and we strained it through a big metal strainer with a paper filter fit in the bottom. Then after the milk cooled, the cream rose to the top and you could skim it off. That's what we used to make butter. You put it in a churn or sometimes if you didn't have a churn you just put it in a jar and shook it for a long time. I remember turning and turning that churn handle. Finally you would begin to see butter flakes start forming and then more and more until you had butter. Then you had to take it out of the milk that was left (the buttermilk or as we always called it, clabber) and work the moisture out of the butter until you had a little round mound of dairy fresh butter. 

Birthday Story 1 - Simple Gifts

You might wonder what any of that has to do with the birthday stories I've been sharing. Well, read on to see in Joyce's birthday story. I'm pretty sure she got a present for her birthday that few of us have ever received.  

Growing up on the farm, one of my jobs was to make the bread and churn the butter. I Hated making the butter, it was a long tedious job. Since we were a large family...we made the butter in one of those big cans that honey comes in. Do you know what I'm talking about? It stands about 18-20" and approx 12-14" (square). Well, Mom talked Dad into hooking up one of the old electric drills to the paddles; he added another 'handle' (a black iron pipe) so it made a T. Well, we could rest that on our legs while the drill worked the paddles. It did help tremendously and speed the process up. However, by this time, I hated butter. I loved going to Grandma's house because she had oleo (or margarine as they call it now). It tasted soooo good and we kids made pigs of ourselves eating bread butter and jelly on bread when we went to visit. For my (I think 10th) birthday, Grandma didn't know what to get me and Mom told her to get me a box (1#) of margarine. She said I can't get her that!! Mom talked her into it and she did, wrapped it up in birthday paper and put it in our fridge. We were sitting down to supper and Mom said, did you open Grandma's present? I looked at her, then at Grandma and said no. Mom said it's in the fridge. I sat there looking confused (why would she put my present in the fridge?) I got up, found it in the fridge and sat down to open it, No Clue whatsoever as to what it could be. I think I screamed when I opened it. (Dad gave me a dirty look for screaming at the table.) My sisters wanted to know what I got and when I showed them, they all wanted some too. I was a selfish little brat and said NO, IT'S MINE! I sat there with my oleo and ate my bread with the happiest smile on my face. I have no idea what else I got for my birthday but I do remember that gift. It was priceless to me. I believe I did relent about a week later and let them each have One slice of bread with my precious oleo, but I was a miser and made that last for a long time.

Birthday Story 2 - Simply Fun

What a fun story, Joyce! Just goes to show how simple things can bring a lot of pleasure and how moms always know what we want most. Now here's another birthday story that's sure to bring a smile. Felicia tells us about a fun party she had for her daughter. 

We lived in Florida at this time and I don't recall how old my daughter was, maybe 10 or 11. I let her have a few friends over for her party. And we didn't have a lot of gifts. But we had a lot of fun. So the theme was scavenger hunt. I handed her a clue and she and her friends were off. That clue led her to a small gift and another clue and so on. Her next to last clue led her to the above ground pool. She picks up the last clue and it was one word. DUCK! She says that word and her and her friends look over at us confused, which is when we 'opened fire' on them all with water balloons and water guns. It was fun! The kids loved it. She still remembers that party and we all smile when we think about how much fun we had that day.

Felicia's story is another good lesson in how simple things are sometimes the most fun and creative thinking can make birthdays great without having to spend a lot of money. 

I hope you've all had fun with the birthday stories I've shared forward. I always get more than I can share, but I do enjoy reading every one. I'll be drawing for the winners this week for my birthday giveaway, but the real winner is always me since I get to hear from you and read your stories. If you haven't entered yet, you have two more days to leave a comment here with a way to contact you or to send me an e-mail to annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com. I'll be picking three winners of the gift cards and book. All the details are at my website. www.annhgabhart.com.

Let me know if you've enjoyed the birthday stories or if you've ever churned butter.