Muffins With Moms

Brandon had lovingly re-named this activity Muffin-TOPS with moms!

 We had such a great activity for the Mothers  of the Activity Day girls and the Young Women. It was to honor them for Mothers Day.   We served Muffins and Juice.  When we got there you decorated a composition notebook that would be a "mommy and me" journal that you would write back and forth to each other in.  We also made a little paperclip ribbon bookmark by just tying a cute ribbon on a big paperclip.  That would serve as the page marker on the mommy and me journal.  At an earlier activity the girls had made bath salts for their moms as a their mother's day gift.  We put the baths salts in dipping sauce cups with lids from a restaurant supply store so they could have individual servings.  They got 3 different salts in a bag tied with raffia.  It was a really cute gift!

        I had Sister Ball come and speak to us.  She was AMAZING!!!  The topic I asked her to speak on was "The Beautiful Ugly of Motherhood".   When I had asked her to speak she asked me "what do you mean by beautiful ugly?"  and right at that moment all heck broke loose with my kids.  I held up the phone and said "that!"  You know, when you come home from church and you want to run inside and lock them outside.  It's usually the ugly stuff that stretches me the most and makes me the most beautiful or turns into the most beautiful moments but it's also usually the stuff we don't talk about.  She is a lovely lady who ALWAYS is smiling.  I wasn't sure she was up for the challenge.  BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!  I think she has 6 kids.  She shared some of the most sacred beautiful ugly I have ever heard.

 When she was speaking I remember looking around at everyone and thinking "is everyone else witnessing this miracle or is it just me?" It was one of those moments when I understood why other churches jump up and down and shout amens and fainted and spoke in tongues and stuff because that is what I wanted to do!!!!  I wanted to go out and get more people to come in and hear what she was talking about!   It really was that good.  It was everything that I needed to hear and I think Darby too.  She did such a great job at speaking to a crowd of such diversity.  She had ages 8 to 48 +.     She spoke to all.  There wasn't a dry eye in the room at moments and I appreciated her honesty.

Her daughter Brittney sang our closing song (A Woman's Heart) and she wasn't able to finish the last verse because she got to emotional.  Her mom came up and put her arm around her and said "lets just read it."  It was just another special moment for this special day.  Brittany is Darby's piano/voice teacher and I adore her too!  She couldn't find anyone to accompany her so she played for herself and recorded it into and old timey recorder.  I LOVED it!  I love that she didn't just give up and say she couldn't find someone.  I love that it was kind of beautiful ugly!  I love that she couldn't finish the amazing song and her mom came up to help her.  I love that her little sister is in the picture too.  I love their whole family!  (I love that her dad, President Ball, is in the movie Foot Loose!  The original one!  and you can actually spot him cause he still looks the same!)

 It was funny the night before Darby and I had a HUGE fight!  I ran down the street like a crazy lady and Darby sat in her closet with a sign on the door that said GO AWAY!  aahhhhhhh  Beautiful  Ugly at it's best!  It made me laugh and cry through the whole of the next day!  As we are growing together I will remember this day for a long time and remember not to be to hard on either one of us!  It was a great and magical day!  I love Sister Ball and the whole Ball family for doing this for us and sharing their beautiful ugly!

A few days before the activity I sent the moms a text asking them what song represented motherhood to them.  There was no wrong answer, my song was "Welcome to the Jungle",  I was just working on a project and needed some ideas.  The project I was working on though was a cd for them!  A slew of texts came in and it was sooooo much fun!  I made a cd for them to take home with the songs they gave me and a few church songs mixed in.  It's a real tear jerker cd but a it's a great cd to pop in if you a feelin' like a bad mom and need to feel better!  (The last song on the cd was our closing song that Miss Brittany sang.)     What song would represent motherhood for you?

MOTHERS DAY MUFFINS WITH MOM MIX
Welcome to the Jungle.................Guns n Roses
A Spoon Full of Sugar.................Harry Connick Jr.
In My Daughter's Eyes.................Martina McBride
Superwoman................................Alicia Keys
Dirty Dishes.................................Scotty McCreery
I love you Mom............................Candace/Phineas and Pherb
She...............................................Cheri Call
Anything Like Me........................Brad Paisley
Mother Knows Best......................Donna Murphy
It Won't Be Like This For Long...Darius Rucker
Mama Said....................................The Shirelles
Never Grow Up............................Taylor Swift
Mr. Mom.......................................Lonestar
Sixteen Going On Seventeen .......Julie Andrews& Charmian Carr
If I Could Take Your Place ..........Tyler Castleton, Staci Peters
You Raise Me Up..........................Josh Groban
Baby Mine.....................................Amy Giliadi
She Doesn't Know.........................Michael McLean
Like My Mother Does ...................Lauren Alaina
A Woman's Heart...........................Jenny Jordan Frogley