Mother's day gifts

Last night, my very exhausted son wanted the scissors. My husband handed him two different pairs from the direction Tristan was pointing and got only tears because he was handing the wrong pairs to Tristan! Tristan wanted the ones with decorative edges so he could cut pretty designs on paper (obviously, we have a lot of scissors around - don't worry, they're all out of Tristan's reach). I went up to start his long-overdue bath and a few minutes later, Tristan came up the stairs and ran over to me with a cute little square with some scribbles on it. "Here mommy, happy mother!" Aww, my very first mother's day card from my son. That one will be treasured. 

This morning I woke up to come to this gadget of mine and on my desk was a lovely fuschia-colored orchid and a balloon with a note in my husband's handwriting, signed "Tristan bug  lion"-this from my husband, who is not big on getting gifts for special days. He believes every day should be like a birthday or Valentine's day or Christmas and doesn't need to be told when he should do something special for his loved ones (to his credit, he really does live up to this point of view, and most every day is special with him!) So needless to say, this orchid is lovely and very special.

I got another great mother's day gift in the form of a song. Certainly not for me, it's for everyone, but is very special. I found it on this great new blog I've found called Apples for Poppyanne. A post from her sent me to a lovely Etsy site, which in turn sent me to a myspace site where you can post music, as this gal, Elizabeth Ann Barlow, has here. Listening to both of her tracks at this link this has given me the best feeling of peace this morning. Especially the second track. I love this type of "mountain" music. She sang this song in the woods - her idea was to make it sound as if you just came across someone singing in the woods. I love this. 

Happy Mother's Day.

Music, Lovely Music

It's amazing how music has the ability to form a mood, break you down, lift you up and carry you through the times. Yesterday, we watched a taped episode of Jon Stewart with a solo Bruce Springsteen playing "Working on a Dream." It brought me to tears...I just love the guy and all he does.

I added a site this morning to my "Places I like to go in Digi-land" - the Elizabeth Mitchell site. She's created 3+ albums of children's music that is wonderful - it is playful, mellow, and completely engaging. Totally for mom's ears as well as kids. I used to walk/nurse my son to sleep to "You Are My Sunshine," then "Going Down the Road," (back when he would be asleep in 2 songs flat...). "Going Down the Road" is a cover of this old bluesy song by Elizabeth Cotten - an African-American woman who lived earlier this century and was this very natural musician. Here it is on a YouTube (this isn't a video, but there are videos of her singing other songs): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwdFhWNL0_M

Elizabeth Mitchell does a lovely, stunning rendition of this song.

Yesterday we also caught a PBS special (accidently dvr'd!!) honoring Paul Simon and watched Alison Krauss and Shawn Colvin singing "The Boxer" - I love listening to Alison Krauss. What a great voice.