Mother's Day

This has been my favorite Mother's Day yet! I slept in this morning, and Paul made me breakfast when I woke up. An egg mcmuffin and some passionfruit juice that he found that tastes just like the fancy drink from Kauai.

We had the Sacrament and our Family Night, and then Paul and the kids gave me some presents. I love the 'About My Mom' pages that they fill out every year. 

Paul got me a book that I've been wanting to read, a hiking shirt (that hasn't been delivered yet), and he surprised me with a book called A Girl's Guide to Heavenly Mother, and an Article that he printed out from the BYU Studies Quarterly called "A Mother There": A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven. These surprise presents mean so much to me. This picture was taken after I stopped crying. :) This is the most thoughtful and meaningful present Paul could have gotten for me, and was the culmination of the best Mother's Day yet.

I woke up this morning to a video that my uncle Ron sent out to the family. Jason filmed Grandma Hawkins talking about her life at the family reunion in 2013, and Ron recently found the video on Jason's ipad. I watched the video as soon as I woke up, and really started thinking about my amazing lineage of mothers who have helped shape me into the woman I am today. The two that I have known personally are my mom and Grandma Hawkins. They are two women who have spent their lives devoted to the important and meaningful things. The two most important things in both of their lives are their family and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have learned through their examples and their teachings that family and the Savior is what it's all about. I'm very grateful for this perspective that they've taught me. 

I finished reading a book this week called Eve and Adam, and the next mother that I thought about in my lineage was Mother Eve. I absolutely loved what I learned about Eve through studying this book and the scriptural accounts we have of our First Parents. Eve was brave and courageous, intelligent and obedient, and sacrificed her own ease and comfort for the betterment of her family. She longed to be better and to learn and grow, and did very hard things knowing it would be worth it in the end. This was as far as my thoughts had gone at the time I saw the book that Paul had found for me, and as soon as I saw it I was just overwhelmed by the feeling of completeness that this last mother in my lineage brought to the chain of thoughts my mind had been focusing on today, my Heavenly Mother. About a year ago I had a number of experiences that really made me feel like I needed to learn about our Heavenly Mother. I have felt a very strong longing for Her, and felt like She will be able to expound my understanding and better our family's life. Paul and I feel it's very important for our children, especially Tessa, to learn about Her while they are young. The fact that Paul sought out these two new sources for me to learn from for Mother's Day was so meaningful to me. And that led me to think about the beautiful woman who raised Paul and taught him to respect and admire women, and think of them as equal partners. From the very beginning of Paul's and my friendship, I noticed how he treated women, and I loved what I observed. His mom very much influenced his opinion and attitude toward women, and I will forever be grateful to her for that!

I thought it would be fun to put pictures of these women in this post, and so I pulled out a couple scrapbooks. Right away I found a picture of each of them with Tessa, and I thought that was just perfect. She belongs to this same lineage of wonderful women, and I'm so glad she'll get to learn from them as well.
I spent some time outside this afternoon with the kids. Damon loves his new bubble blower!


Paul made steak tacos and pina coladas for dinner. They were extra yummy today!

We did a Zoom call with the Clark side of the family after dinner. We played a Mother's Day Kahoots game that was a lot of fun. We got to know Grandma Clark a little better by playing the game. I always love to see the family!

With all the seeking and learning that I've been trying to do lately, I have gained a greater love of being a woman and a mother. Today was a real blessing, where I got to celebrate what I am, and feel very very loved and seen by my family and by my Heavenly Parents. I love these children and love love love being their mother!