Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday to my beautiful mother. She turned 84 (January 12) . All of us head home for Mom's birthday. My sister Bobbie came from Alabama and sister Bev flew in from Chicago. Where was I you ask?.....burping my newest grandson and helping with the night time feedings.

Mr. Wonderful and I spent Christmas with mom so we did get a good visit during that time. We also got about 14 inches of snow in Virginia Beach, so got some exercise shoveling the driveway too.

My mom will probably out live all of us. She is very active in her church and community Bible Study as well as volunteers to work weekly at her church.

She makes the best applesauce in the entire world (ok, that may be a slight exaggeration, but it's really good and she makes me applesauce every time I come home.) My mom has macular degeneration so peeling, slicing and coring apples is definitely a labor of love. Kudos to little sister who suggested I buy Mom one of these for Christmas.

What a great little machine. It peels, slices and cores the apples in no time at all. It has a vacuum suction base so is stable on the counter. We made her slice several apples while we were there to make sure she can use it. I'm in love with it and have put in a request with Mr. Wonderful that he can surprise me with one anytime. I love apples but really like them sliced thin. ( Did I mention that I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets? )

I missed being with my sisters but mom gave me all the details of their visit. Sounds like it was fun....especially the visit to Lynnhaven Fish House for she crab soup.

I love you Mom !

Hail to the Queen Mother

Monday was my mother's 83rd birthday, so we all made the pilgrimage back home.

It was nice to spend time with my sisters. Mom's real gift was having all her girls home at the same time.

Sister Bev, tackled closets and drawers. New shelf lining was put down and several things were discarded (including beach towels that are over 30 years old and thread bare!) She also took on trimming the holly bush outside and doing a thorough cleaning of the kitchen.

My sisters are much more organized than I am and consequently have greater influence on mom. Sister Bobbie, decided that mom needed new place mats and napkins so bought mom a new set and tactfully suggested that she might want to retire the other set. Mom would have none of that and tactfully suggested Bobbie take the new ones home with her! (As you can see, we don't lack for spirit at our house!)

Several of Mom's Birthday surprises turned out to be too much of a change for the poor dear and it took her quite a while and many tears to work through it. Kudos to sister Bev, who was able to calm the situation down and worked tirelessly to resolve the "surprise" upgrade to Mom's Web TV ( despite the network being down for 72 hours!)

Sister, Bobbie, bought mom an electric fireplace insert.
It has both logs and flames and can be controlled by remote control. It will also blow out heat if you want it. It is similar to an electric heater. It makes the room very warm and toasty as well as very inviting visually.

My contribution was bringing Mr. Wonderful with me to install everything and fix minor household problems. (Hey, we all have our gifts!)

Mom's email situation is still not settled which is a problem since she really likes getting pictures and notes from her friends and family.

Happy Birthday Mom......may God bless you with many more healthy, productive years.