As I washed her boots!

As I washed her boots I was thinking.  She will slip them on and run outside rain or shine and sooner than later they will be caked with mud once more.  Did I wash my children's shoes?  Did I care if they looked perfect when they left home for school or the store?  Did I spend time fixing their hair with care and standing back and thinking how neat and pretty you look?

Our early memories are not always as we remember them.  They vastly change according to our nature as well as our needs.  I remember sewing the stretch and sew shirts and shorts and standing outside the door of the local rag shop and fighting to get the scraps for $.50- $1.00 a bag for the knit cloth to make them with.

I have photos to prove I made Easter dresses, decked them out in little hats and new shoes at least once.  When they were small, we always had Easter egg hunts around the house, Christmas was a big thing with a tree trimmed and a big dinner.  Halloween was a time when we had hay rides as they got older and I do know that was mostly because Carol got that together and her daddy and I prepared the way for her.

I rode the rides with the older two kids while Eddie rode the Merry go round with Carol at Six Flags.  We slid down the hills on card board boxes in the snow and we played in the lake during the summer and learned how to ski.  You see I know these were real memories because I have photos to prove them.  So many times when the kids come together I am told about things I did that I don't remember that way.  Some are funny while others are condemning and I wonder.  Will she remember I washed her boots?  Will she remember I wanted to fix her hair and she refused?  And the dresses I provided that she hated?  Will she remember love or condemnation for not seeing things my way?  Will she remember the day I danced in the rain and sang praises to the Lord while they swam in the pool and watched?  Will she remember the Sunday School lessons, the rides to church, the bible stories we read to her?  Or will she remember the grouchy old woman with the short fuse too many times to my shame.  Will she remember "You are my sunshine, my lovely sunshine, you make me happy all the day long?"  Does Jesse, Jamie, Shawn and Tasha remember my song I crooned to them as I rocked them?  Jesse, Jesse, MeeMaw's boy, you are MeeMaws greatest joy, in the morning, in the morning. And as the children came each name filled the beginning of the song.  Each child reacted differently.  Jamie squirmed, Shawn just stared at me and Tasha was older before I got to have her due to not being a bottle baby.  But they all would cuddle down and go to sleep as I sang and rocked.  Such sweet memories I have. 

Alex was born in a time of life when there was time to revolve around her.  She was like the sun and she shined and we revolved around her.  We protected her from what we thought was danger.  We loved her with unconditional insurmountable love.  My life totally changed and I became more of a mother, staying home while Eddie traveled for jobs, sitting and caring for her while he helped build the church at Antioch and anything that before I had helped with became a thing of the past.  We had a baby and we adored her.

As I washed her boots I was just thinking.