Missing Mom....

I have been doing a lot of cleaning as of late.  I have two of my favorite people coming to visit the Little Bayou House this coming weekend and I want to make sure that their stay is most delightful.  My oldest son, Mark and his wife, Joanna, are in the process of making a move and are coming to see me before they head far away.  This would not be far to most folks but to me, it is a trip to the moon and back!  Mark keeps telling me that it is only an eight and a half hour drive from the Bayou but since I never leave the Bayou, he might as well said that they were moving to a different planet!  But like I said, I have been cleaning the house from top to bottom to prepare for their visit...and oh, the things I have found while cleaning!

In one chest, I found a whole bunch of baby clothes.  This would not be remotely strange if these were special items that I had saved from each child that I had but one of these items struck me as being a tad odd to be in my possession!  I have my brother's baby outfit that he wore home from the hospital!  Why do I have this and not him?  I have no clue unless it is simply because guys have a hard time seeing sentimental value in a piece of fabric!  I held up the baby "onesy" and smiled..it was hard for me to ever imagine that he was that small considering that he is over six feet tall now!  I held the little outfit and thought of how Mom was a city-girl turned farm wife.  I thought of how she had to learn to do the things that were not taught to her as a young girl growing up in the city.  I thought of how she lost her first babies..two pregnancies..two sets of twins.  I thought of how hard it had to be to keep trying. I thought of how after the tragic loss of two pregnancies, she bore five more healthy children.  Yep, I thought about Mom the whole time I was holding that little baby outfit that belonged to the second youngest of those five.  (Me, being the youngest!)  I never thought of Mom as being a particularly strong woman when compared to other farm wives that I grew up knowing.  Holding this sweet little outfit made me realize that she was strong...oh, so strong.   It was also one of those times that I terribly miss her being here...