joy, pride, sorrow ~ all part of weekend celebrations

What a joyous occasion we celebrated Saturday evening: Tim's BFA Art Show!

Tim had three of his photography pieces in the show. Here's his artist statement.

Tim had framed his work with glass, so I apologize for the glare. I wish you could see these pieces in person. My phone camera doesn't even begin to capture the beauty in his amazing work.

To say that I am proud of my son is an understatement. He is talented, smart, hard-working, and most of all, a truly genuine, loving young man. He has overcome some major life obstacles in pursuing his degree. I'll talk more about that next week after his graduation ceremony.

And then Sunday was Mother's Day. I have mixed emotions about this day. While I am grateful to still have my mother on this earth, and I'm a mother myself, Mother's Day is always hard for those of us who have lost a child.

I'm not a big fan of these kinds of holidays anyway. I think they put a lot of pressure and expectation on both sides. 

Yesterday afternoon, out of the blue, I received a private message from a friend in Canada whom I rarely speak to. She's had a messy life and isn't online much. But somehow - on Mother's Day - she thought of me. And took the time to send me a private message to tell me so. I was so touched. She was the only one - besides one of my best friends - that took the time and effort to contact me yesterday.

Backing up a little, on Friday Brian had said that he wanted to go out and pick up a little something for me for Mother's Day. Knowing the chain stores in this area, I told him to please not waste his money on some last-minute piece of cheap jewelry from one of those places. He asked why not and I told him things like that don't mean anything to me. (There's the expectations thing on the other end...men know that their wife and/or mother expect a gift, so they think going out at the last minute and buying something frivolous gives them brownie points.) I hinted that I liked plants and flowers. We'd been talking about sprucing up the area in front of our neighbor's fence - as talked about in my May 2nd post, in case you missed it. A couple of you had suggested a trellis and I had nixed that idea at first because I thought a trellis would have to lean against our neighbor's fence. 

Brian called me from the garden center and asked how I'd like a trellis for the fence area! I laughed and told him a couple of my blogger friends had suggested that. He said he found a metal trellis that was curved. It wouldn't have to lean against the fence. He also picked out a couple of clematis plants. 

I hope these plants do well. I tried growing clematis years ago and it died. This area gets at least six hours of sun every day, plus I've been watering. Rain is moving in tonight and into tomorrow, so no watering from me will be needed.

On Saturday evening before Tim's art show, the three of us met up for dinner with my mom, sister and brother-in-law. I gave my mom her Mother's Day gift then, since I wasn't seeing her on Sunday. Like me, Mom loves succulents and pretty dishes and pottery for use as planters. So I made her a pretty arrangement.

 I lucked out in finding the vintage planter in my newest favorite shop. 

A weekend full of emotions, high and low. Today's a new day and I'm taking time to breathe and find peace in the stillness after the flurry of weekend activity. How about you?