Dan gave me a gardener for Mother’s Day!

Yes, my Mother’s Day gift was a gardener.  This sounds strange, but it is a VERY big deal.  Everything that I planted in our gardens at Nuestra Casa these past three years has grown like a weed due to an abundance of sunshine and warm temperatures all year around.  Every plant and flower is so unique and exquisite that my design for our gardens is to keep each plant separate from each other, while still providing us with beauty and privacy.  

I have needed to spend more and more time tending to my gardens—just to make sure that our yard does not turn into a jungle.  I love caring for my gardens, but my 70-year-old body, particularly my back, has been screaming, “Stop!”  And Dan and I want to use our bodies cycling, walking, camping, and hiking together (not pruning plants).

Hence, my incredibly caring and sweet husband hired a gardener for my Mother’ Day present!  

He also knew how upset I was when my large brittle bush blew over in a big wind storm last winter and snapped off at the root.  So he gave me three new brittle bush plants!

Unfortunately, my new gardener was not scheduled to groom our gardens until the end of the month, so I had to plant my new desert plants myself.  (Actually I love to plant flowers in my garden, so it was my last hurrah, before Dan took my gardening tools away.)

I guess you can see why he has threatened to take away my gardening tools....that was really back breaking work.  It’s one of the many ways that he takes care of me.

We headed out to our beloved desert on Mother’s Day.

On our last camping and hiking trip I had started knitting a winter jacket for our dear little granddaughter, Hannah, and on Mother’s Day I completed this Christmas present.  

Dan modeled the jacket for me.  Isn’t he cute?  Bu we do expect that it will look better on our precious Hannah.

All our grandchildren, children and family called, emailed, texted, sent cards, and gifts to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day.  It was so very wonderful to get such an abundance of loving messages.

Dan gave me one other gift that we will hang in our home and reflect upon often.  This is a small picture and quote that was given to another treasured mother in 1924, on Mother’s Day almost 100 years ago.  This is the mother and grandmother that I will always aspire to be.