A Rock Home Companion and a LoveFeast Table giveaway
Our table is scratched and has wobbly legs. Apparently, when I’m not looking, my boys use yogurt as finger paint, so if I ever actually get it clean, I give the laser eyes and tell them to git out of my clean kitchen.
We all go out and dig around and pull up weeds. I wear a baby and hold my phone in the air at the irises. I’ve learned how to hold the frame the way that shows only the beauty.
What you can’t see is how fallen apart we are. The tin on the 70 year old chicken house flaps in the wind. The ceiling touches the floor. The once regal trees have been snapped in two for years now from the dead weight of ice, and now they host Spring’s creepers. The honeysuckle wraps a death grip tighter than kudzu. It’s beautiful, how fallen apart we are.
Once in a while Fayetteville’s train whistle blows. The frogs talk us through some things; the birds want to say it loudest. We’re never going to get this place right, this old house, the random railroad spikes breaking our lawn mower. Everyone who drives by can see it, but then, too, how the garden grows, how the one azalea lives in perpetual fire, hot pink against our rock.
I send the boys to the table outside, by where the old strong roses reach up the fence. We make our mess outside, and throw trash in a burn barrel. “It is what it is,” we say. The most beautiful things are what grows out of the broken, even sometimes the hidden things we pull out of the bramble, like that homemade horse-drawn cart we found in the woods.
Motherhood is just that – broken, hidden, beautiful.
I hardly keep clothes on their backs, and it’s not that I don’t try. I spend all day trying. I waste so much in frustration, and then in a flash I’m broken, see the worth in the pain.
The baby smells a horse for the first time. I watch the exchange, protective yet permissive. The fuzz on the mouth of this large animal is unreal soft, made for babies. We all ought to be trusted that much by a horse, ought to know what it’s like to stand close and watch the wind comb an old mane. Horses do indeed bite, but what’s a horse if you can’t get close enough to smell the sweet feed.
I’m catching glimpses.
I’ll never work hard enough, never get it together, never be able to tell you how much I want to love better.
***
The more I hear the impact that Mother Letters is having on lives, the more I’m confirmed in our decision to publish it. We need to see the beauty in the broken, Mother. The amazing women at LoveFeast Table want to treat you today, and it gives me so much joy to be giving away their Mother’s Tree of Life Necklace, valued at $199.
This heirloom quality, 30″ necklace is hand-made using genuine, fine quality gemstones and sterling silver and will be customized with your children’s or grandchildren’s birthstones.
This giveaway ends at 11:59 PM on Friday, April 27th and winners will be announced on the RunaMuck Facebook page, so follow along there to hear the news.
To enter, simply follow LoveFeast Table and Mother Letters on Facebook and come back here to leave a comment. If you’ve purchased Mother Letters and had a chance to soak any of it in, give us a little review on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble, and come back here to enter your name 4 MORE TIMES! We would really appreciate the feedback, and we’re so grateful to LoveFeast Table that they’re helping us celebrate you as a Mother.
- April 20, 2012
- 48 Comments
- 0
Kristen
April 20, 2012I LOVE the book. Thank you. It's been a rough week for me, and to catch little moments here and there and have those words encourage me and show me I am not alone has been nothing short of beautiful. Thanks! And I liked both on facebook! :)
Carissa
April 20, 2012Beautiful :) All of it.
(I liked both on facebook)
Thalia Madewell
April 20, 2012I just love you, Amber Haines. You are a composer of boys and words and you give an eloquence to so much of what I too feel as a wife and mama.
Susan Rozell
April 20, 2012What an incredible post....what an incredible family...what incredible love! You touch my heart daily.
Hannah
April 20, 2012Amber, I so love reading your words. Mwah!
Laura
April 20, 2012I am loving the book and buying it as a giveaway on my blog this week. What a messy-wonder that is motherhood! Thank you for your time and love in publishing. <3
Julie
April 20, 2012Can't wait to read the book, because I well remember loving the MotherLetters project and felt blessed to be able to participate. Amber, thanks for sharing your mother heart with your readers!
Mandy
April 20, 2012Love that necklace! Just liked both of these facebook pages. Thanks!
Emily Garrett
April 20, 2012I liked both of the pages on FB, and look forward to reading Mother Letters on my Kindle:)
Bekki Beilby
April 20, 2012Just found your website the other day and love the beautiful letters and life stories. Hope to get your book soon.
Jennifer Upton
April 20, 2012I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I've yet to buy Mother Letters. I am a Nook user and felt a bit left out until I read that I don't have to be. I am excited to have it in hand later today. Your community of writers is a new, vibrant & refreshing world that has in recent weeks captivated my heart. This relationship was born out of Deeper Story and grown through Twitter. I feel so loved by God to have connected the dots the way and in the time He has. I too love telling stories and know I will grow not only as a writer but wife, friend and mother through written word. I look forward to reading Mother Letters.
Brandee Shafer
April 20, 2012I liked LoveFeast Table and Mother Letters, as I like that necklace. But I think I like your baby sniffin' that horse most of all.
Emily @ The Pilot's Wife
April 20, 2012Gracious that necklace is beautiful. And Mother Letters? Well you already know I'm in love with that.
Carrie Carter
April 20, 2012I follow Mother Letters on Facebook! That necklace is absolutely beautiful!
Stephanie Spencer
April 20, 2012Beautiful post and beautiful necklace. I have liked everything on Facebook, too.
And, I can't leave a review of Mother Letters even though I have purchased it. Because I didn't buy it for me. I purchased it for my friend, who is a mother, too, and has been walking beside me in wonderful ways this year. The book seemed like a wonderful way to say thank you. (I'll buy my own someday, too.)
Linds
April 20, 2012I have liked both pages too - and I LOVE the whole Mother Letters concept - I have from the very beginning!
Jennifer
April 20, 2012I love the way you describe 'framing' to show only the beauty and not expose the brokenness. Don't we all do that in innumerable ways? Thank you for the post.
The necklace is stunning, and, after following Mother Letters for a time, I'm now hooked up with Love Feast Table, too! Thanks for directing me there.
Pam
April 20, 2012I have liked them both. Following the followers on FB:-)
Breanne
April 20, 2012Beautiful. Love how you use your frame to capture the beauty.
I follow Mother Letters on FB. And I just left you a review on Amazon. I've been just soaking up the nuggets in this book. Thank-you!
Becky
April 20, 2012I'm not here for the give-away, but I just wanted to say "Motherhoood is just that -broken, hidden, beautiful" -I love that line!!
Rachel
April 20, 2012I liked both pages! I love the necklace! Can't wait to read more of the book (waiting for it on iBooks)....I read the sample and it is so encouraging that I'm not in this beautiful mess alone.
Hannah
April 20, 2012Beautiful necklace! I've seen this on another blog before and have been looking at it or a while. Can't wait to read the book too!
Amy
April 20, 2012It is broken, isn't it. Broken and beautiful. (Only God can do that!) Love this post...totally where I am at right now too!
Amy
April 20, 2012I liked both FB pages and left a review on Amazon!
Dawn Maurice
April 20, 2012I'm following Mother Letters on Facebook and am looking forward to reading the book!
Fiona
April 20, 2012Wouldya, couldya show a pic of your irises? I've always thought that if I could paint I would paint irises.....I can't though...
i so love your words, but i love your heart more.
(already following Mother Letters on facies, now following LoveFeast Table)
Amber
April 28, 2012Fiona! You won the necklace! I'll connect you guys by email. :)
Linda
April 20, 2012You're the reason I so love the art in written word.
Linda
April 20, 2012I also liked the FB pages, I had already liked yours. : )
Sarah@EmergingMummy
April 20, 2012This isn't an entry just an OH MAH WORD that necklace is LOVELY.
Julie R.
April 20, 2012Glad to have found your site. Liked you on Facebook. Thanks for sharing your heart.
Rachel B.
April 21, 2012So pretty! I'm a facebook friend of The RunAmuck
Rachel B.
April 21, 2012I'm also a friend of Mother Letters on Facebook!
Melanie
April 21, 2012So grateful to have found you! We speak the same language of the South and I love the way you use that language to paint such moving pictures.
brandy h.
April 21, 2012Just liked both pages. I adore the necklace and look forward to reading the book.
Joanna
April 21, 2012Two more great pages to follow on FB... Thanks! Gorgeous necklace, beautiful words in the midst of this wild mess, tamed only by grace.
Wendy J
April 21, 2012I liked both on Facebook and I'll have to read the Mother Letters now. Sounds good.
Nancy
April 21, 2012Just ordered a copy for my daughter. So inspirational.
Airs
April 21, 2012Oh how I LOVE those necklaces. I want a gold one stat. Ha!
Ms. Haines I think my life will never be complete without a visit to the Rock Home. I am so going to miss the South.
(I seriously adore how the boys are looking at Seth in that pic, with such awe.)
Jen @ Martymom's Musings
April 22, 2012I liked both on Facebook!
The necklace is gorgeous!
Jane Anne
April 22, 2012I liked LoveFeast Table on FB and I follow mother letters. Thanks for the chance to win!
Kit
April 22, 2012I liked both on FB. Need to get me a copy of the Mother Letters. Mothering is the thing that really undoes me.
Rae
April 23, 2012I like both on facebook!
Beth
April 23, 2012I liked both on FB. I am thoroughly enjoying reading Mother Letters in my snatches of free time in the car or waiting room. I especially love the force behind the book, this love story between you and Seth.
April C.
April 24, 2012Fan of both pages on Faceboook! Thanks!
Sara Evanchick
April 25, 2012Beautiful!! I already liked Mother Letters and happily added LoveFeast Table to my likes this morning! :)
sarah cantrell
April 25, 2012I have been reading Mother Letters in the early hours of the morning while I nurse our 10 week old. Mother Letters has inspired me to be a better mother as well as a better wife. I am taking time to enjoy every moment with my two girls. Thanks for your powerful words.
Lisa Hoff
August 9, 2012Wow, you have many cute horses. I love riding a horse.