Showing posts with label mother. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mother. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Happy 80th birthday, Mom

 

With the circle still unbroken,
(Mom and Dad and all ten children with our spouses,)
our 80th birthday celebration for dear Mother on Sunday
was precious indeed!

Numbers 6:24-26
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
25The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.


The laundry lines you filled would reach up to the moon and back
And we could build skyscrapers with dishes, washed, dried and stacked 
The meals, prepared with thoughtful, loving labor, by God’s grace
Would humble us immensely if gathered into one place

Thank-you mom, for your diligence in ‘training up a child’
While we outgrew dresses and shoes, while days-to-years ran wild
While we would laugh and work and play and learn to humbly pray
To our Father up in Heaven to guide us each day

You taught us how to find joy in earth’s beauty, grand and free
Though busy you were never blind to God-penned poetry
You showed us (not just told us) when there was a task to learn
You took the time to read or pause to watch the seasons turn

You never did complain (or if you did I don’t recall)
A helpmeet for your husband and a mother to us all
With love enough to go around with never one left out
Love was the priceless plenty we never had cause to doubt

What happy days of childhood from heedless innocence slipped
From ‘now I lay me down to sleep’ to prayers without a script
From ‘Goodnight, yes, I’ll leave the hall light on, at least for now
(Unless the talker talked too long and laugher laughed too loud!)

Dear mom, I want to thank you, for too often I forgot
And simply took for granted tasty meals, healthy and hot
And work-worn hands that did not eat the bread of idleness
But tended to duty’s demands with cheerful faithfulness

I’m thankful for God’s love that has allotted eighty years
‘The multitude of sins’ you covered with your prayers and tears
And for the treasured memories that sparkle in a trove
Where surely the greatest of these is our sweet mother’s love

I pray each day for God to bless and keep you in his care
That come what may you sense the power of His presence there
I thank Him for the gift of a mother who read His Word
And let us by example with devotion undeterred

Happy eightieth Birthday, may the year ahead be blessed
With God’s mercies and if He wills, with health and happiness
Happy eightieth birthday, as your numbered days decrease/increase
May they be overflowing with God’s love and joy and peace

© Janet Martin

Psalm 71:18
Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, forsake me not;
until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation,
and thy power to every one that is to come.

Psalm 37:25-26
I once was young and now am old,
yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned
or their children begging for bread.
26They are ever generous and quick to lend,
and their children are a blessing.

Psalm 90:12
Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.


Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Happy 21st Birthday Victoria




I did not yet, when First Gaze met
Thy crinkled brow and downy head
As Greeting’s tender tears were shed
I did not yet quite comprehend

How joy that starts as Little Girls
While Time its silver baton twirls
Leaves in the wake of frocks and curls
So swift, love's sweetest gift; a Friend

love, Mom
aka
© Janet Martin

Happy 21st Birthday, Victoria!
Your gentle and kind disposition is such a sweet blessing!
You make our home a happier, 'fuller' place! 😅

God bless and guide you in the year ahead💝💖🙏
You are a girl of many interests, hobbies and talents/gifts!
Keep trying new things and give the glory to the Giver
of every good and perfect gift!



Besides being an awesome Auntie, sister and daughter,
a student and Hardware Store employee you are

An Artist...




Avid reader, writer, journal-er, historian,
cinema and music lover
and vintage cool-things/dishes collector









Needle-worker/embroiderer 


Green thumb-er-ish...


Baker...


Num.6:24-26

May the LORD bless you

and keep you;

25may the LORD cause His face to shine upon you

and be gracious to you;

26may the LORD lift up His countenance toward you

and give you peace.’



Monday, November 1, 2021

For Mother, Sweet and Kind



Between the bustle of keeping up with 
wife-mother-grandma-and childcare-giver duties/beauties
I often find myself drawing from a wellspring 
rich with sound teaching from my mother. 


Today my mom turns 79!
So thankful for my sweet and gentle mother💖


The green pastures of childhood soon turn gold with echo-song
While we reap the rewards of a kind mother all life long
How often we remember in the thick of living’s care
The memories of childhood and a loving mother there

Now often as we look back on fond scenes grown soft and dim
We thank God for the gift of a mother who honored Him
For as a child we could not see what the years strew behind
The precious, priceless memories of mother, sweet and kind

How swift the carousel of seasons spins and spills and twirls
And soon its eager children are no longer boys and girls
But men and women, moms and dads, so thankful to recall
Their precious, loving, faithful, gentle best-mother-of-all

...it doesn’t sound like much to tell it; how moms undo days
Cook-clean-laundry-scolding-holding-praying-playing-haze
With admonition for the wrong and kind praise for the right
We pray we too will leave behind a gentle guiding light

© Janet Martin

Monday, August 2, 2021

Life's Kind and Sweetest Years of All...

 


Today my husband's mother turns 90!
Yesterday, surrounded by her greatest joy, family, 
we celebrated this milestone.
Once again we were blessed by the talents of sister-in-law Lucille
with a beautiful cake to celebrate this momentous occasion!


(front row is Mother with remaining sisters & brother-in-law and her children)
Mother is the one with a blanket over her lap. 
It was very cool for August!!



In the afternoon a drive-by birthday greeting shower
allowed over 100 extended family and friends
the opportunity to bring birthday blessings in person.


Dear mother, as time passes by
And strength and energy decline
May love bear fruit in rich supply
Where years hang heavy on life’s vine

May you be blessed without reserve
And honoured as long as you live
Because dear mother, you deserve
The very best love has to give

We pray that Motherhood’s reward
Begins on earth, by what we do
To show you that we thank the Lord
Dear mother, for the gift of you

Then, as the love of family
Brings joy where twilight shadows fall
We pray your sunset years may be
Life’s kind and sweetest years of all

© Janet Martin

Her children arise and call her blessed;
Prov.31:28

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Garden Stroll

For today's prompt, write an ekphrastic poem.
An ekphrastic poem is one in which the poet writes a poem based on another work of art, 
whether that's a painting, photograph, sculpture, mixed media, or other piece of art.

This painting, almost 30 years old was at the time, a splurge!
I purchased it Brand New! (likely from Zellers) 
In 'young mom/homeowner' days that was quite an
extravagance, but I'm so glad I did. I still love it.
 (it was not expensive, by any means but still, an extra)
I feel so much more than meets the eye when I look at it!
(I took the liberties of adding a few extras to the poem,
perhaps the pond and arbor are just beyond the scope of the lens??)😉




It is so much more than flowers
More than birdsong that beguiles
She and Child to garden-bowers
It is Time and Touch and Smiles

She looks down at her sweet daughter
Who does not yet see beyond,
Picket fence, wisteria arbour
Ducklings paddling in the pond

She is not attuned to hours
Or the mementos they spill
Happiness is picking flowers
In a place where time stands still

The world fits inside her pocket
She fits into mother’s smile
They fit into a heart-locket
Forever Mother and Child

© Janet Martin

Thursday, November 12, 2020

A Love Poem (for parents)

 We celebrated Mom's birthday yesterday, a little late...


I tucked this poem in her card and hope
she will read between the lines...
for things words wouldn't will.

Sometimes the heart is full of art that cannot find a way 
To spell in ink the things we think but don’t know how to say 
’I love you’, ‘I am sorry’, ‘thank-you for all that you do’ 
Seem far too small to convey all that I would like it to 

The things we learn where living’s no-return is running rife 
Often humbles opinion with stumbles and facts of life 
But we are not so quick to pick up stones in self-defense 
As we begin to gather in the sheaves of recompense 

The past is a vast book we should look at, but not retrace 
Except to see with clarity the goodness of God’s grace 
And where we lack the perfect knack to spell our utter thanks 
We trust in love to be enough to fill in all the blanks 

© Janet Martin

“‘“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”’

Num.6:24-26

Monday, May 11, 2020

It Was A Beautiful Day...

It was a special Mother's Day even though we could not all be together...
wow! 
I can't wait till we get the green light on get-togethers!!

Sunday started with a simple breakfast...
 over scrabble...
 ...first oriole visit!

... a beautiful worship service.
In the afternoon Victoria and I hiked off the beaten track for a few hours...
In the evening while we were face-timing all together
the family surprised me speechless with a new mixer
to replace the temperamental relic I was using!
(sometimes it would choose its speed regardless where I set it;
very annoying if it chose high-speed when I was adding flour)

...as you can see, in spite of all the things that I could name that I missed
it was still a beautiful day!


So much trouble we could have had that somehow lost its way
To gift us with the memory of a beautiful day
For all that could have run amuck, for woe that could have been
We thank You, Lord; we’ll never know how oft you intervene
Where, midst the muddle and the mess of mortal maladies
You bless us with the happiness of precious memories

Then as we count the mercies that Your providence imparts
Love’s picture-collage births meek gratitude that bursts our hearts
For all the trouble that we never did experience
We hardly know how to reply to such benevolence
But to remember to address this blessing when we pray
And thank God for the kindness of a most beautiful day

© Janet Martin

Life is far from perfect; but we choose happiness!
When we think of everything that could go wrong and hasn't...yet
may this be enough to fill us with love and gratefulness
for What Is.


Sunday, May 10, 2020

Oh, Dear Mom, At The Time We Didn't Think Of It

She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many daughters have done well,
But you excel them all.”
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the Lord
she shall be praised.
Prov.31:26-30 

Mom, a pic from years ago, in her happy place;
a garden with flowers

An old class-mate of mine shared a tribute on Facebook to his departed,
 much missed and beloved mum...
His comment to a memory I shared was the springboard to this year's mom-poem.
He said, "
At the time, we didn't think of it, but now we know how great she was!"
Oh, that says it all to all of us, doesn't it?!! 



At the time we didn’t think of it
We ate and played and dreamed and grew
And in the little blink of it
Learned more than, at the time, we knew

At the time we didn’t give much thought
To what a mother gives and takes
Or of the love that toiled and taught
While we soiled clothes, devoured cakes

At the time we didn’t see the half
Of what dear mother gave and prayed
Until the heart-shaped autograph
Of echoes and memories made

At the time we didn’t grasp the truth
Of values clad in common threads
We tore the cover off her youth
And benefited from its shreds

At the time we didn’t understand
The double-edge of love, but stood
Upon the labour of her hand
And tender tears of motherhood

At the time we thrived beneath her voice
Rebuked if willful words ran wild
Or cautioned in a world of choice
That starts to shape even a child

At the time we didn't know what we had
Or appreciate this careworn saint
Apron-clad and humming-glad
 Never stooping to complaint

At the time we didn’t realize
How much or often we would gaze
At what we now cherish and prize
And will, for all our living days

So now, as I try to express
My gratitude I hope somehow
You feel the humble thankfulness
For all that I am seeing now

Dear mom, today I/we honor you
As by God’s grace you gave your best
For your example, meek, strong, true
Your children rise and call you blessed

© Janet Martin


Saturday, May 4, 2019

Your Mother's Heart...


 

It often looks like nothing much
Packed lunches; broom and mop
The tidy up and ‘extra-touch’
Of home-sweet-home on top

It might just look like ‘shoes to fill’
Or fresh-baked bread or pie
Or laundry washed and heaped until
It seems to reach the sky

Or hug and kiss, goodnight, sleep tight
Or ‘don’t forget to pray’
Or fingers washed or noses wiped
Or teardrops brushed away

…or window-sills with flowerpots
Or glass bowl filled with fruit
Or scolding naughty little tots
Lest seed of sin takes root

Or quirks that sometimes make you laugh
(Or roll your eyes a smidge)
Or keepsakes, like the photographs
That cover up the fridge

What do you see, dear girl and boy
Just dishes washed and dried?
After hot, home-cooked supper-joy
When it is cold outside

Does it just look like life to you?
Or chores performed in vain?
Shake-off-the-mats-and-run-the-vacuum
Through-the-house-again

Well, I would like to tell dear
These common works of art
Are not all that they would appear
They are your mother’s heart


© Janet Martin