This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Thanks for your support!
We hope you all had a wonderful Easter! But, remember, Easter came a little late this year. Don't get caught by surprise because Mother's Day falls on May 8th this year! That seems very early, but the 8th is the second Sunday of May.
I'm always on the lookout for good Mother's Day gifts because my 99 year old mother is the best mother of them all. Unfortunately, it is becoming more and more difficult to find her the perfect gift. What does a 99 year old need or want that she doesn't A-buy for herself or B-not know that she even wants it. Plus, she lives at my sister's house and her room is already pretty full of stuff!
I don't know if I have found the perfect gift for her yet, but in my search, I have found some amazing gifts that I would definitely love to receive! (hint, hint) Ha ha! Anyway, I thought I would share them with you in the hopes that if you are on the lookout for good Mother's Day Gifts, this list may help you out.
This puzzle table would be perfect for my mom because she loves doing jigsaw puzzles! Unfortunately, she already has one. I think it is the coolest thing for puzzle lovers. You can use the little drawers to sort the colors or pieces that you are pretty sure go together. You can store it under the couch when you aren't working on it. It comes with a cove to protect the work you have already done from the dust bunnies!
If your mom is a gardener, I love the idea of this harvest apron. Yesterday I was picking peas and holding up the bottom of my shirt to collect them in. Sometimes they fall out the side, plus that gives me only one hand to work with since I have to hold up the bottom of my shirt. The great thing is that this particular apron comes as a 2 pack, so you could keep one or give away 2 to your favorite moms. My mom doesn't do much gardening now, but I know plenty of moms and grandmas who do. You could sew up this apron pretty easily as well if you would rather make it yourself!
Along the same lines as the harvest apron, there is this adorable apron for gathering eggs! More and more people are becoming micro farmers and chickens are in people's backyards even in the city. If this describes your mom, this apron would be a cute and unexpected gift!
I have actually been considering a nice water bottle for my mother. Older people can easily forget to drink and become dehydrated. I like the encouraging goal setting theme of this water bottle and the easy flip up top.
If you do go with the water bottle idea, here is an adorable sticker to decorate it with! (Obviously on the opposite side from the measuring lines.) StickerBStudio on Etsy makes amazing waterproof stickers for water bottles and phones! I've never outgrown my love of stickers. They are a great way to personalize a gift! Bronwyn's stickers are made in the USA by her in Round Rock, TX! The prices are perfect. If you are on a limited budget, one of these stickers slipped into a card would be a sweet gesture as well!
This is the perfect sweatshirt for a young, awesome mom. DiamondTeeDesign has a ton of great choices of Tee Shirts and Sweat Shirts that would work for your mom or grandma! You'll want to check them all out. A tee for my mom might not be a bad idea.
This sign would be a touching gift for a mom or a grandma! You can get it made with up to 27 names! I am currently counting on my fingers and toes to figure out how many grandkids my mom has, but the 27 might work for her. This beautiful plaque is made by Haunt&Home, an Etsy shop.
This necklace from Lymgifts is just so beautiful. It doesn't hold enough names for my mom, but it does for me! You can get it with 2, 3, 4 or 5 rings intertwined. I love it!
So, those are my favorites so far. Do you have any suggestions for my 99 year old mom? If so, please let me know pronto! Thanks! ​Here are some past posts that may also give you some idea!
0 Comments
In the Christian world, today is Good Friday. Sometimes I wonder who came up with that name. I think about the people who stood at the foot of the cross of the Savior Jesus Christ. They probably didn't feel like it was a very good day.
Of course, the Good News of that Friday was that Sunday was coming. If you are subscribed to our email then you would have heard the news about our baby boy Henry Merrill. You might recall this post where I wrote about our second daughter Elodie. Nine months after Elodie's birth and death I was once again pregnant. We were hopeful and nervous about this third little baby who was coming to our family. Would he or she be perfectly healthy like his oldest sister Emily? Or would he too have Meckel Gruber Syndrome like his sister Elodie? On September 13 I went in for a doctor's appointment when I was about 17 weeks pregnant. My doctor tried to do an ultrasound, but found there was no amniotic fluid around the baby. I don't know if you've ever seen an ultrasound image of a baby with no amniotic fluid, but it is impossible to see anything. The lack of fluid suggested that this baby had a problem with his or her kidneys, one of the symptoms of Meckel Gruber Syndrome. I went to see a specialist where it was confirmed that this baby had Meckel Gruber Syndrome as well. We did a blood test to find out the baby's gender and found out we were going to have a little boy, our little Henry. After losing a child once, the second time around feels even darker and harder somehow. You've already had to do this once, how can you possibly do it again? I spent many nights praying and begging God to please please please save my baby. Henry made his debut into the world a little earlier than planned. At 31 weeks I started bleeding. At 33 weeks I went into labor on my own. Henry was born on January 2, 2022 at 6:13 PM. He lived for 3 hours and 13 minutes. In this life he was able to meet his parents, his oldest sister, and his two grandmothers. He was sweet, tiny, and so handsome. As he passed I knew his sister Elodie was there to greet him and welcome him to the Spirit World. Henry's time on this earth was so brief. Unlike Elodie we didn't get to bring him home and take family photos. My mom took that one at the top of all of us after his birth. I can't fully explain to you the depths of my heartache at losing him too, and now having two sweet babies waiting for me in the Spirit World. As we have explained on here before, we believe that families can be, and in fact are meant to be, eternal, and that death is not the end. Although I do truly have faith that I will see my children again someday, that doesn't mean I walk through this life without thinking about them and missing them every single day. They have impacted my life in so many ways. I love them so deeply and I'm so grateful to be their mother. Sometimes though, sometimes I feel like living each day without all of your children alive and healthy is the circle of hell that Dante was afraid to go to. On this Good Friday I reflect back to those standing at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. Looking up at their Savior, the Promised Messiah as He hung, nailed to a tree, suffering for us all. How dark it must have felt for those who loved Him. Although there were countless scriptures prophesying of His coming, of His death AND resurrection, there was so much they couldn't understand. What they could understand was that it was painful to watch someone whom they loved so deeply be crucified despite the fact that He was innocent of any wrong doing. I feel that Good Friday sorrow deeply. Christ understood perfectly their suffering. Yet, despite the fact that He was perfectly capable of doing so, He did not get down from where He hung. He knew what He must do, and why. Christ has given us all the promise that our Good Fridays will end. The sun will go down, and long will be the night. But Sunday is coming. On Good Friday I invite you all to look forward to the promise of that glorious Sunday. Holding Elodie and Henry as they slipped from this world to the next was both deeply painful and spiritual. Painful because I don't want to be parted from my sweet children. Spiritual because I know what Christ has promised me. Thanks to my Savior who stayed on that cross, Sunday came. He overcame death and sorrow and gives me the promise that one day I will see Elodie and Henry again. They will live. They are my children to raise. On that joyous day I know that I will never have to say good-bye to them, or anyone else I love, ever again. So you see, this is a Good Friday. This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Thanks for your support! Back in January, I put in my 2022 garden here in Phoenix. I have a grow box, a few things in the ground out of the grow box, and some containers. It seemed like I waited forever for the seeds to germinate, but they finally did. The beets I planted were the first things to come up. Did I say beets? I told you in this post about how I don't really love to eat beets, but I found ways to include them in my diet because they are so good for you! The great thing about beets is that you can eat the entire plant! Even before you can harvest the beet root, you can cut off some of the leaves to include in your salads or other dishes where you would use healthy greens. I even used some beet leaves as the lettuce in BLTs already this year! (Check the aforementioned post for some recipes!) Well, today, I was out watering the garden and checking it over when I saw the first shoulders of some beets pushing above the soil! I was so excited! I also noticed that there were 2 of them that were kind of close together crowding each other out. I made the decision to harvest them. They are a beautiful variety of golden/orange beet and I was over the moon about bringing them in and using them in our dinner salad today! I certainly wasn't going to let any of these beauties go to waste. I decided to make a salad with the beet greens, baby spinach from my garden, green onions that I grow on my window sill, the beets, cut into shoestrings and marinated, and a chopped tomato, the only thing that wasn't from my garden. (But, my tomatoes are flowering as I speak!) Preparing the Beet Root: To prepare the beets, I simply removed the greens about 1/2 an inch above the root and boiled the beet roots until they were fairly soft, in salted water. The time to do this will vary depending on the size of your beets. After the beets come out of the water, the outer skin will slip right off. Next, I sliced them into shoestring slices and marinated them in Italian dressing, spiked with a little red wine vinegar. Preparing the Greens: Just wash the beet tops as you would spinach. I removed the stems and tore the tops into bite size pieces and put them in my salad bowl. Next, I went out and harvested as much baby spinach as I thought I would need to mix with the beet tops and washed them and added them to the bowl. I decided that the green onions would be a nice addition, so I snipped a few stems from those and washed them. Then, I chopped them up into the salad. When the greens were all in the bowl, I gave them a toss. See how great they look! I am a proud grower of this salad! Now to add color, I diced up a tomato. I tossed it into the salad and then finally I added the beets. I didn't pour the marinade over the salad. That may have been good, but I decided to allow my family to choose their own dressing instead. I'm really glad I marinated the beets though, they tasted so good, not pickled, but sweet and flavorful and not like dirt! This salad was the perfect accompaniment to our broiled salmon at dinner tonight. I was in heaven! My linger covid tastebuds barely bothered me at all! How are your gardens doing this year? I am having so much fun with mine! If you don't live in Phoenix, you may just be thinking about putting yours in. I hope you will give beets a try! Other posts like this that you may enjoy:
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support Don't show this post to my grandchildren! I am sending them these bunnies in their Easter packages this year! Because I had most of the needed supplies already, except the number of socks that I needed, these were a very economical gift to make. Plus, they whip up really quickly! These bunnies have been all over Pinterest, except with one difference. All of the ones I have seen have been filled with rice. I decided rice in a no sew bunny, at least for my grandchildren, is probably a bad idea because of 2 reasons:
Because of those two reasons, I decided to make these with fluffy polyester stuffing. Yes, I know, they won't really stand up by themselves, but I am willing to live with that. These bunnies would be perfect for using up socks that have lost their mates. But, I needed to make 10 of them, so I purchased a package of 10 pairs of socks from Walmart. With 10 pairs, you could make 20 bunnies! You can use any size sock that you want, depending on how big you want your bunny to be. It is important not to use no show socks, but use something with a cuff that will work as the rabbit's ears. Here are the supplies you will need:
I created a little video to show you how easy it is to make these little rabbits! Each bunny tends to have a different personality, depending on how much you stuff it, how the ears fall and the color of the sock and ribbon. I just did the basic eyes and mouth suggested by others, but you can give them eyelashes or a smile, whatever you would like. I also had socks that were white with colored heels and toes. They also come out cute, so you don't have to limit yourself to solid colored socks. I will couple these bunnies with some candy and I'm sure my grandkids will love these little treats this Easter. (Including the teenagers, as long as there is candy!) Maybe I will make some of these chocolates this year! (Wow! That is an old post!) Other gifts I've made my grandchildren (to name a few): |
Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
March 2024
|