Mother... the very word is the embodiment of so many things!
I am a piece of my mother, grandmother, mother-in-love, sisters, aunts and dear friends. All these women have poured themselves into me, and I am who I am today because of the lives of strong women who loved the Lord first and gave all to teach their children to love the Lord.
My mother loved, gave, served, and dedicated her life to the Lord, and she leaves big footprints to walk in.
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| Great Grandma Elisabeth (My Mom's maternal grandmother) |
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| Grammie Erma (my Dad's Mom) |
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Gram Eva (my Mom's mom)
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My daughter and I also carry the middle name, Elisabeth, so the "E" tradition continues. And Danielle plans to carry on the tradition should they have a little girl - isn't that special!
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| Danielle and I enjoyed lunch and shopping for baby and momma-to-be this week! |
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| Baby and Momma are doing great! She is now in her second trimester, and feeling the baby move! Such an exciting time :) |
Indeed, today I count my blessings, with the rich heritage of amazing mothers and grandmothers in my life. I praise the Lord every day for the influence of all of them. I hope to pass that on to my children and grandchildren.
Our family gathered last night with a beautiful dinner cooked by the kids - and a bonfire under the light of the Aurora! Thanksgiving to the Lord for His many blessings!!
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| I have taken probably hundreds of pictures of the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) and will have to go through them in the next day or so. It was a magnificent show! I will do a separate post about that experience! |
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| All three fur babies taking a cat nap together! All three are getting along, and I'm so thankful! The addition of Bandit to our household sparked some contention, but now they love him like we do! |
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| These elk showed up in our neighbor's front yard on Friday - it was unusual to see them out in the middle of the day. Usually, we only see them early mornings or evenings. |
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| Baby chicks and Momma are doing great! They are now out of the cage, with no red light, and momma is taking care of them all! This is incredible, and I am so thankful! |
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| Alanna, our DIL made this incredible blueberry/raspberry cheesecake for our Mother's Day dinner. The kids all came over and cooked dinner. It was a "keto" meal as well. Our SIL and Danielle cooked cauliflower potatoes and almond bacon biscuits - which were amazing! He is going to send me the recipe. The cheesecake is keto! Made with a pecan crust! You can find the basic recipe in my cookbook for Huckleberry Cheesecake (she substituted erythritol for sugar, and crushed pecans instead of graham crackers) Amazing! If you haven't gotten my cookbook yet - here is the link: MountainTopSpice Family Cookbook |
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| Me with our two children, so special and dear to me! |
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| Our growing family! |
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| Saturday night's aurora was beautiful, but not as spectacular as Friday night's show. I will blog about it soon! |
I want to leave you today with a new video that I made this week. I used pictures from North Idaho springtime - so beautiful! This is live worship music that you can listen to for your devotional time, or just as background music. I leave my TV on with this playing most of the day now - it has become such a source of blessing in our home to have the beautiful views of the magnificent area we live in shared where everyone can see.
Happy Mother's Day to all the women in my life, you are all special to me! I know each of you pour yourselves into your families, and I just want to give a virtual hug to all of you, especially those of you who may be struggling today because of difficult family situations. Please know that you are in my prayers.
Many blessings to each of you!
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Happy Mothers Day! I love all the E's in your history and it's special that Danielle wants to continue that.
ReplyDeleteOur Heather and Andrew just shared the name they've chosen for the baby due in August. It will be Connor William, and the William was chosen because there were Williams on both sides of the family tree.
I love the Elk - so majestic!
Dearest Marilyn,
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's Day to you!
Lovely memories of all the women in your family and now your are looking towards a new generation.
Hugs,
Mariette
What a lovely Mothers Day you had with your *growing* family 💗. Here too we had a good day.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you had a great view of the Aurora! I remember seeing them dancing in the sky as a child in Manitoba.
Have a blessed week.
Thank you for the post. Happy Mothers Day dear. So excited to be coming up soon and for the baby shower. Love y’all
ReplyDeleteWonderful post today. And to see how the baby is growing inside already by mom's photo! It is always good for us to remember our moms and grandmothers and greatgrandmothers, those of us lucky enough to have known them. I knew mine and what a life they must have lived before modern days.
ReplyDeleteWe did not see the lights here, as we had our usual cloudy Ohio sky. But I have enjoyed the photos that are being shared. Boy, I see the kitties are getting along so well. That's a treat. Lynn and Precious
Thank you for this beautiful post on Mother’s Day, Marilyn.
ReplyDeleteGuess what??!! I was a winner f or your cookbook and received yesterday via Amazon Prime! It was on my porch when my girls and I got home from them treating me out to my fave Japanese restaurant. (My husband was with his mom and dad in their home in MA because they are starting to not do well and it's turn to be out there..he's working remotely from their guest room the next 2 weeks so i'm alone and wil lbe trying out a few of your recipes!) My mother, now with my dad and Jesus' name was Beulah Elisabeth; my mother in law is Elizabeth; my name is Faith Ellen, and we named our oldest daughter Courtney Elisabeth. (Biblical spelling and for my mom's middle name) plus her older cousin by 3 yrs is Elizabeth so....and my youngest is the only one without an E as I named her Claire Rebekah (from the Bible).
ReplyDeleteI'm listening to the video right now and the photos are stunning!!
I'm so thankful you have a wonderful Mother's Day!
What a glorious day it was for Mother's Day this year. Looks like you made the most of the day. What fun 'e ' heritage you all have. No Ellen? :) You are in such a sweet time of anticipation for that blessing from God to become part of your family. Happy new week to you.
ReplyDeleteI, too, love your family tradition of carrying on beautiful names that start with "E," Marilyn! The photos you shared of your mother, MIL, and grandmothers remind me that I need to have my brother send me some copies he has; I let him take the photos with him when we were clearing out mom's house. You are so blessed to have such a loving family who put Jesus first in their lives. May every day be Mother's Day for you, my friend!
ReplyDeleteYou are blessed to have all those wonderful women in your life. So many don't have that.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful Mothers Day post.
ReplyDeleteHere in the UK we celebrated ours in March.
All the best Jan
https://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.com/
Beautiful post Marilyn.. and great pictures! How funny that all the names of your moms and grandmoms and "mom" family and friends start with the letter E! You write so beautifully about your mother.. I took your words from your first sentence and added it to my Facebook post about my mother. She WAS so many things and cared for us 4 sisters with so much love and caring. My aunt was like a second mother so we always wished her a Happy Mother's Day too! I love how spring is arising around your farm and home.... and seeing the animals, chicks, kitties, etc.! We're having a week of sunshine here whish is so motivational! I've been out planting flowers and cleaning up weeds, etc. My back is killing me, but the fruits of my labors are worth it! xoxo Marilyn
ReplyDeleteMarilyn, good morning! I'll join you in the parade of E women - both my mom and grandma were Elsie!
ReplyDeleteThat cheesecake looks amazing! So glad you had a beautiful Mother's Day weekend, including the Northern Lights which so many of us were treated to. Many blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteHello, what a special post, thank you Marilyn!!! You are inspiration to me!!! I learn a lot from you too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your recipes, health tips, family and photos with us.
Carla
How neat about the E's in your family! That's really special.
ReplyDeleteIt's a dream of mine to see the Northern Lights one day. I was told it was seen in Texas this year, but where I live, we've had a Lot of rain. The skies would have been too cloudy. I look forward to seeing your post on it!
Hope you and Danielle had a happy mother's day! God bless,
Valentine
What a wonderful, encouraging post, sweet friend! I would love to have that recipe for the keto cheesecake, and that is a great idea to substitute pecans for the crust. I love that kind of crust! It is delicious to add pecans to the bottom of a regular homemade pie crust, then use sugar-free chocolate pudding/pie filling as the filling and sugar-free cool whip on top. When I was growing up, we used to eat at this restaurant that made German chocolate pie. Oh, my word! It was so good! Adding the pecans to the crust sort of reminds me of that. I loved seeing the photos of your grandmothers. I think you look like Grammie Erma, and I got tickled about Eva giving you a swig from that humongous pepsi bottle! Danielle looks so adorable! I can't believe she is already in her second trimester! Time flies by so fast. Soon you will be holding that little grandbaby in your arms, spoiling it rotten! I'm so happy for you and sending much love to you today!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful for your daughter in love to carry on the E tradition if they have a girl. I always enjoy seeing your beautiful pictures and happy faces. I know you are anxiously awaiting the arrival of your grand baby. Exciting times are coming soon.
ReplyDeleteP. S. I am enjoying your background music. Thank you!