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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

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May 8, 2011

In Honor of Our Mother

Our Grandfather and Mother

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine – she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.  ~Terri Guillemets


Our Mother on her wedding day


[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.  ~Emily Dickinson

Vanessa and our Mom

A little girl, asked where her home was, replied, “where mother is.”  ~Keith L. Brooks

Vanessa, Heather and Mom

Mother is the heartbeat in the home; and without her, there seems to be no heart throb. ~Leroy Brownlow

Heather, Vanessa, Mom and Lauren



Mothers and daughters are closest, when daughters become mothers.  ~Author Unknown



It is as grandmothers that our mothers come into the fullness of their grace.  ~Christopher Morley


A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.  ~Washington Irving


There came a moment quite suddenly a mother realized that a child was no longer hers. … without bothering to ask or even give notice, her daughter had just grown up.-Alice Hoffman


With our Mommy!



We would be remiss if we didn’t recognize the women who loved and sacrificed so that our husbands could grow up into the wonderful men they have become. They are both amazing fathers and husbands and we owe these women a debt of gratitude for that!



Men are what their mothers made them. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We deeply appreciate our mothers-in-law and want to wish both…

Kathy (Vanessa’s mother-in-law)


Arlene (Heather’s Mother-in-law)
a very

Happy Mother’s Day!



What do girls do who haven’t any mothers to help them through their troubles? ~Louisa May Alcott

Mom, we love you deeply and feel blessed that you are not only our mother, you are our friend. We both hope that our own daughters will feel the same way about us as we do about you. We even hope they will call us on the phone as many times a day as we call you!


You are always ready and willing to “help us through our troubles”.
You are an incredible “Nonna” to our kids and a loving mother-in-law to our husbands.
You instilled in us a love for homemaking and traditions and Little House on the Prairie.
But the most important legacy you have given us is your love for the Lord.


Happy Mother’s Day Mom!
We love you,








 



8 Comments Filed Under: Good Thoughts, Holidays, Simply Sundays

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Comments

  1. Dianne says

    May 8, 2011 at 1:31 PM

    Good job girls…as a mom there are two things that give us great joy…one..to know that our children walk with the Lord..two..that are children get along…your mother must be very proud

    Reply
  2. Knitty says

    May 8, 2011 at 1:46 PM

    I am smiling as I sniffle. What a loving tribute.

    Reply
  3. NanaDiana says

    May 8, 2011 at 1:47 PM

    What a beautiful tribute to your Mom AND to your Mother-In-Laws! I am sure you both are blessings in all their lives! Happy Mother’s Day sweet girls! xxooDiana

    Reply
  4. Kristin says

    May 8, 2011 at 3:17 PM

    Lovely post!
    I am so with you on the friendship and phone calls part. I hated letting my “little” girl go off to college and the big city this past year, but… I love the million and one phone calls and a random text every once in awhile that just has a picture of my sweet smiling girl or, better yet. The ones that simply say… “I love You…”
    Be still my mothering heart.
    Happy Mother’s Day to you all!
    Love, Kristin

    Reply
  5. Buttercup Bliss says

    May 8, 2011 at 10:18 PM

    What a beautiful post! The quotes about mothers are terrific! Thanks for sharing. 🙂

    Happy Mother’s Day!

    Reply
  6. Christie says

    May 9, 2011 at 3:44 AM

    This is so beautiful! You girls have such a lovely family!! Count your blessings and hug your momma tight! I miss mine so much!! AND, Happy Mother’s Day to the two of you!! What an inspiration you are to the rest of us and encourage me in homemaking and traditions! I affectionately call Yvonne at Stone Gable my ‘blog mom’ but I learn so much from all my ‘mom’ friends, too!!! Blessings to you! Christie

    P.S. Vanessa, the cornice for your little girl ROCKS!! I am inspired!

    Reply
  7. Debbie says

    May 9, 2011 at 11:49 AM

    Happy Mother’s Day (late) to the whole lot of you.

    I think we can safely say that your mom did an awesome job of raising daughters.

    BTW, I have to copy down half of those quotes for later use on my blog. They are wonderful.

    And tell your mom that she was a beautiful bride. I’m sure she already knows that, but tell her anyway.

    Reply
  8. Val says

    May 9, 2011 at 2:35 PM

    What a beautiful tribute to your mom!!! <3

    Reply

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The month of June is coming to a close and it has The month of June is coming to a close and it has been JAM packed! The highlight by far though was my son's graduation from high school. When I started blogging, he was only 6 years old and some of you have been apart of my community here for that entire time. Now, he's 19 and there is a reason parents are told not to blink because the years truly do go faster than I ever could have imagined. He has become such an incredible young man we are so excited to see how God is going to unfold the next chapter of his life. We celebrated with parties galore (SO many open houses to attend!) and made memories we'll forever cherish. My mama heart was filled to bursting with the joy of it all! Now we're taking some time to just enjoy these warm, summer days making even more memories because, when you’re at this stage of parenting, you know all too well how much you need to grasp every opportunity to spend time together.

I hope your summer is off to a great start too dear friends! 🪴
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts o “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Happy first day of summer dear friends!! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted something new here but life has been crazy. I’ll have some new photos of house projects and life events to share with you soon but, got now, I’m just going to enjoy this gorgeous first day of summer after our ridiculously long, wet spring. ☀️
“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. Th “It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” (Maud Hart Lovelace) 

Welcome June!
“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom “No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.”
General Douglas MacArthur

Grateful today and every day for those who were vigilant to the point of death in the preservation of our freedom. May we honor their sacrifice by being vigilant too. #memorialday
“Those who know your name trust in you, for you, “Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” Psalm 9:10
This is one of my most favorite projects from my b This is one of my most favorite projects from my book Life in Season! 

Because, if heaven has a fragrance, I’m fairly certain it smells like lilacs.

I think that somewhere along the way the verse in the Bible that said, ‘heaven will smell like lilacs’ just got lost in translation. But it HAD to have been in there at some point, right?

When I bury my head in the blossoms (which I absolutely MUST do every single time I walk past them), I immediately feel a stirring in my soul.

It seems like I wait forever for my lilac tree to bloom. Every year I anxiously watch as the buds begin to form on the branches and then when the blossoms finally burst forth I begin that agonizing process of deciding the absolute perfect moment to snip them and bring them inside.

And then, after all of that waiting and watching it’s just over…done. Because, unlike heaven, lilacs don’t last for an eternity. So, making my own lilac room spray seemed like the perfect way to enjoy their fragrance long after the blossoms have faded.

Here’s how to make it! Ingredients: Water, Vodka, Lilac fragrance oil. Directions: Fill spray bottle with 50/50 ratio of water to vodka. Add 12 drops of lilac oil. Give it a shake, spray and if the scent isn’t strong enough, simply add a few more drops of lilac oil.

Once you’ve made this lilac scented room spray you will be very tempted to spray it in every room in your house. And someone may want to use it in the bathroom to cover up other less…ummmm….pleasing aromas.

But, do not, I repeat do NOT, let them.

You’ve captured the fragrance of heaven in a bottle and you wouldn’t want to go and tarnish it now would you? 😉
We had two back to back days of sunshine (the most We had two back to back days of sunshine (the most we’ve had in a LONG time) and now we are back to pouring rain. This has officially confirmed what I’ve know to be true for awhile now.

I’m a MUCH better version of myself when the sun is shining! 🤪 So I’ll just be over here today plotting and planning how my husband and I can be snowbirds someday when the kids are out of the house.

If you could spend your winters (and apparently most of spring too!) in any part of the country, where would it be?
Happy weekend sweet friends!! We’ve had a LOT of Happy weekend sweet friends!! We’ve had a LOT of rain lately (which is saying something when you live in Oregon) and I’ll admit that it’s affecting my moods a bit. I feel like I’m dragging and struggling to find the energy to get stuff done. So don’t mind me if I’m over here looking at photos of my garden in the summertime and finding that it keeps me hopeful about those days to come. They will come, right?! 🤪. 

What are your favorite plants that you look forward to seeing in the summer?
We’re going to be giving our laundry room a make We’re going to be giving our laundry room a makeover soon. It’s LONG overdue! In fact, the folks from the counter company were just here taking measurements. While we have made some simple, inexpensive updates over the years, it still has many of the original elements from when the house was built in 1992.

Two of our bathrooms are also in need of major makeovers. And we’ve saved up enough money over the years to tackle those projects. But, for the most part, we made the decision to use the bulk of that money in another way. While we knew that it was financially wise to invest in our house, we also knew that the greatest investment we could make was in our children. 

I’ll admit, there are times where I see other people doing massive overhauls of their entire home in a matter of months and I feel a prick of envy. But, we decided that if our choice was between waiting a bit longer to enjoy a renovated bathroom or going on adventures as a family, we would choose adventures every time. And we don’t regret that decision for a single second. It’s not that we haven’t tackled home projects (we’ve done a lot!). It’s just that it’s been a slow and steady process. 

Most recently, we let our son pick where we would travel for spring break since this is his senior year of high school and we are trying to make up for lost time. With so much of life ‘paused’ for two years, we have appreciated these moments more than ever. And, since he’ll be heading to college in the fall, we are very aware of how important it is to spend this time together while we still have a modicum of control over everyone’s schedules.

We have many years left to remodel our home but only so much time left to make memories with our children.

And, while I’m always happy to look around my home and see rooms that are updated and more reflecting of our style, it doesn’t compare to the joy I feel when I look around my home and see the people I love the most who have been shaped by the many adventures we’ve experienced together.
Happy Saturday!! After endless days of rain (and h Happy Saturday!! After endless days of rain (and hail and snow) we are finally getting some sunshine and warmer temperatures. I’ll be honest, it’s really affected my spirits having one gloomy day after the next. So this is a much needed reprieve. Our cherry trees are showing off outside my kitchen window and we plan to get outside and make the most of these days while we have them.

What’s the weather like where you are?
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