IMG: The Life of a Home Mom

She was all smiles when she saw us waiting at the entrance, however she’d soon forget us. You could see how much fun she was having, but watching her have all this fun made me realize how much she’d grown up and in just a few years she’d be doing all that teen stuff and flipping her hair as I was watching now. Oh the heartbeats that will happen and the laughs that will be shared. The days of barbie dolls and watching Barney will soon be over, okay Barney already is but all that sweet baby girl stuff will be moving over for make up and diaries with stories of boys, I just hope she allows me a few moments of this with her. Today was a fun day, even if it had some awww moments.

Post from: Blisstree

Mom Shows Up at Field Day

IMG: Sxc.hu

First, I heard from SoccerBoy that they were getting me some Mother’s Day Gifts. Okay, this didn’t mean dad was going out and spending money on me but the kids themselves were and they were also making me things at school. To be honest I thought it would be painted handprints with poems. I was shocked this morning when my oldest two presented me with ceramics they’d made in art class. Wow, this stuff was impressive. (I’ll take a pic in a day or two.) This meant a lot to me, it showed that they took the time to make me something from the heart.

Knowing her siblings were making me stuff, BabyGirl (age 5) did as well but also asked that I give her a few dollars the next time we went to the store. I figured out why and did so. She was so excited when she handed me a stuffed bear today. This will be the one Mother’s Day I never forget.

Post from: Blisstree

My Kids on Mother’s Day

IMG: Dr.Laura site

Here’s Dr.Laura’s “In Praise of Mom” info:

The ENCORE screening of Dr. Laura’s “In Praise of Mom” will take place on Wednesday, May 6th at 8:00pm ET / 7:00pm CT / 6:00pm MT and 7:30pm PT (tape delay). This show will be recorded live the previous night and is being rebroadcast in select theatres for this special encore showing.

Tickets are selling fast for this very special, historic Event available for the first time ever in theatres nationwide.

“In Praise of Mom” will feature America’s most-listened to female radio talk show host, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, at her multi-media best, celebrating with Moms all across the United States. In addition to her usual wit and wisdom, Dr. Laura’s “In Praise of Mom” will feature audio and video from sons, daughters, grandchildren, grandparents, and moms and dads as they pay tribute to their moms. It promises to be an uplifting, poignant, funny, and inspiring one-of-a-kind event.

Let me know if you were lucky enough to get to the show.

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Dr. Laura’s Mother’s Day Special

There are reminders of her everywhere, pushing out from mounds of pansies in my garden or in passages of a thick Pat Conroy novel. At times I can feel her with an intensity that startles me. Browsing hosta in a garden shop or scraping wallpaper from the bathroom walls, I am doing what she did. I am becoming her.

Nine months after her death, on what would have been her 58th birthday, I held her ashes in the palm of my hand, giving her up to the wind of the sea islands. The dust flew into the sky and down into the quiet waters of the marsh. There was no ceremony, no preacher hugging the family Bible, no sermon echoing in the open breeze. Just my family, what was left of us, bruised and worn raw.

We had scattered her ashes off the edge of my parents’ property on Dataw Island, South Carolina. They had purchased the land the year my mother got sick, with plans to retire early and spend their days tending to the native plants, fishing off the pier, maybe teaching at the local community college. Here, my mother would heal from the surgeries and treatments. Here, she would be healthy.

But the cancer came back. Or maybe it never left her body, lying dormant until we fooled ourselves into thinking that life would be normal again. Cancer does that. It hides in the back of the mind, breathes a chill against your shoulder so you never completely forget.

On a quiet spring morning just before daybreak, the same month ground was to have been broken for their home on Dataw, my mother passed away. The birds still called into the sunrise, the car engine still turned over, people on the street still walked and breathed and made small talk, all unaware that everything had changed. My mother was dead.

I was the only one of my family who remembered that Easter night a year before she died, when we sat at the dinner table and dreamed of their move. The house plans were almost final, there were appliance books and paint decks spread across the table. My mother said once they moved to Dataw, they would never move again. And when she died, she wanted to be cremated and her ashes scattered into the water at high tide, just below the twisted oak in their backyard that leaned over the marsh’s edge.

I have often been asked if I miss having a gravesite to visit, a plot of grass on which to drop to my knees and connect with what remains of her six feet below. At the very least, don’t I feel obligated to visit the property where her ashes were scattered, a place that now holds the house of a stranger, someone who never will know the secrets of that sprawling live oak out back?

I stand now, my feet bathed in the gently swaying waters of the Gulf Coast, hundreds of miles and many years from where my mother’s ashes flew. She is with me. She is the water, riding currents across this mighty earth. She is the air I breathe, the wind that tangles my hair. I have felt her during my child’s birth, in the still nights rocking my son to sleep, with my grandmother who since spiraled into the darkness of dementia. I speak to her in the quiet of my car and in the vast space between earth and stars.

There is no comfort in losing a mother, just the raw burn when memories rub against the mind. I choose to visit her here, in the static of my senses – for this is as close to heaven that I know.

(photo, Flickr, debaird)

JWJourney

Post from: Blisstree

For My Mother On Her Birthday

This book contains more than 300 healthy recipes, including options to make vegetarian meals vegan, changes for people with allergies, wheat-free, and soy-free. Some of the recipes are quick and easy, while others are perfect for plan-ahead, re-heat it meals. This handy cookbook also contains complete nutrition information, helpful shopping lists, and time-saving tips.  It’s a great addition to any cookbook collection.

Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook: Whole Foods to Nourish Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women and Their Families, by Cathe Olson

Image credit: Barnes and Noble.com

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Vegetarian Cookbook For Pregnant Moms

Have you taken a look at the classifieds lately?  Everything out there requires a college degree, many even state they don’t care what that degree is in just that one is required. Whatever happened to employers hiring someone based on knowledge and experience?

Perhaps someone should come up with The University of Hard Knocks that issues degrees based on life experiences and areas of expertise, even if the experiences include floor mopping 101 or Diaper Changing 202 or what about a PhD in Dispute Settlement?

I have seen articles written on just how hard the job of parenting is, yet no one wants to recognize the true skills it has taken many parents to raise great kids. Those experiences just don’t seem to count. Yet many parents have amazing skills and experience in problem solving, mediation, creative writing (or story telling at bedtime). Parents tend to have extremely strong organizational skills. And have you ever seen a parent that could not communicate? OH and what about that the ability to multitask? Let’s not forget that! Anyone who can organize meals, soccer practice, baseball games, school lessons and still keep the white clothes from turning pink should be recognized for their abilities and not just because they are listed on some sheet of paper that could be displayed in a costly frame on the wall.

Whatever happened to the saying “the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world“? Did something happen somewhere along the line and the rule changed to be…the hand that rules the world so long as you are bilingual, have at least a degree in underwater basket weaving and are of mixed ethnicity.

Many of the jobs I see specify that you must be free to travel obviously the strong underlying statement here is that you have to neglect your family.  But hey, that’s OK because they’re gonna reward you for your neglectful ways!

It’s ok that you neglect your family and run the risk of you or your spouse having an affair simply because you are “lonely“. It’s ok that you have to miss your child’s ballgame and miss that amazing triple play your son had that he will never be able to repeat. The bright side is you will have a nice fat paycheck from which you can buy him a new bike in hopes of making up for what you have missed.

Now in my own opinion, I have always put my family first. If I have to struggle for every dime and pinch my nickels till the buffalo…well you know… Then I will! I will not miss my children’s ballgames; I will not miss a single tooth fairy visit. I will not have a paid servant placing a band-aide on that boo-boo that only mom can kiss the pain away from. I will not have another person who has little interest vested in my child’s personal growth instilling *their* morals and standards in *my children*. I want to be the parent who can stand at my child’s graduation and know without a doubt that *I* helped create that amazing adult who is about to make an incredible mark on this world.

Why must it be so difficult in the land of opportunity, to find a job that also provides balance and room for family?

Post from: Blisstree

The Hand That Rules The World