Becoming my Mother

I'm laughing at myself this week as I feel like I'm becoming my Mother...something I said I'd never do (but don't we all say that!). This week I've begun scrapbooking. Mom left SO MUCH scrapbook stuff (among a myriad of other craft items-a room full)! I just began to play one day picking up in the book for Gabriella she'd begun. It was easy as most of the pictures had already been cut out and I had any item needed at my fingertips.



Also this week I've begun working on a Thanksgiving project. The centerpiece for the Thanksgiving table is going to be a Thankful Tree. It's gold and silver sprayed branches in a vase. On the branches each guest will hang a leaf. The leaves will be made of all kinds of patterned paper. On the leaf we'll each write what we are thankful for this year.



I'm putting together a few crafts for the kids' table so they won't get too bored while waiting.



Also this week I've gone to both Michael's and Hobby Lobby and had a White Chocolate Mocha with a shot of peppermint at Starbucks (Mom's favorite and way off my normal Pumpkin Spice Latte). But the one thing I've done this week that has really startled me into the realization of my altered behavior...while watching QVC in bed last night I grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and wrote down item numbers and descriptions of things I'd like to order. I found too many of these pages to number in Mom's night stand drawer after she died.



Here's the thing...life's too short. Life's too short to do all the things we want to do. Whether it's crafts or writing or shopping or wearing all the things we've ordered or whatever it is. Life's too short. Maybe in some strange way I'm trying to finish things for Mom. The Tuesday before she died, Mom's friend Marion came to visit her one last time. I was showing Marion around the house and came to Mom's craft room. I was frustrated that Mom was dying and she still had so much she wanted to do. There was a room full of projects she'd never come back in the room to finish. Marion said, "Maybe that's the way it should be. We should all be busy, creating, doing. If we ever finish, we'll just quite and give up." That changed my perspective and now I think of ways to fill up more of my days to use the energy and gifts God's given me for whatever time I have here.



But here's the cool part, on top of the days here, we as believers in Christ get eternity to keep doing. Just because we die or enter eternity when Christ returns, we don't cease to be who God created us to be.



I look at Mom's projects here...finished or unfinished. They're amazing. From my wedding dress to an arranged song, to a decoupaged lampshade to a scrapbook page to a floral arrangement to a painting to a recorded solo to any of her creations...they're all beautiful and representative of who God made her to be and what He intended for her to do...create and bring glory to Him. I believe she did that. I believe she's doing it now. What's incredible is that she did such brilliant work with fallen world materials...I can't wait to see her creations with heavenly materials.



I still want to do all my favorite things like sing, act, write, teach. But now I have a new desire for Mom's brand of creativity too. I guess that's another reason why we get eternity...because this life is too short to do it all here, but I'm sure going to work hard at it-just like Mom did. I guess I'm becoming my Mother.