Gifts of Love

This evening Josiah picked a buttercup for me and brought it into the house. I never tire of these expressions of love! I think before I was a mom, one of the things I looked forward to about parenting was having a child bring me a scraggly bunch of hand-picked flowers...so now that I'm in that stage (and I'm well aware it is simply a stage and will not last forever), I relish it!

The vase that I put the buttercup in is very special to me because when I was on a field trip in elementary school, I bought it--with my own money--in the gift shop of wherever my class was visiting, and gave it to my mother as an "I love you" gift. I was so excited to give it to her! I remember doing a similar thing for my dad...on another school trip, I found a Christmas ornament that was a heart-shaped pillow with the word "Dad" on it, I think. Once again, I was thrilled to give a special gift that I had chosen myself and bought with my very own money. :)