Mother’s Day

According to Wikipedia, Mother’s Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society.

The modern holiday was first celebrated in 1907. Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at Saint Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton WV.  Anna Jarvis wanted to have a specific day set aside to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world”. I would have to agree. Without our mothers we would not be here. It’s interesting to me that it was a woman honoring her mother that made this day an official holiday. 

I understand the value and power of women and that some of them don’t have the opportunity to be mothers to their own children. I have women in my life who have been a great influence on the lives of my children and other people’s children. I am grateful to them. I know this has been hard and at times very challenging for them not to be able to have their own children.  To those women I say your reach is greater than you think. Your life has meaning and you have blessed those around you.  

The second Sunday of May is the official Mother’s Day holiday. In honor of that I want to share a couple of stories with you. 

Mother-in-law 

There are plenty of jokes about mothers-in-law. And having recently gained a son-in-law, I am hyper aware of these jokes. I was in Logan, Utah in the middle of winter. The temperature outside was four degrees (Fahrenheit). (Yes, you did read that right.)  I had stopped at Bridgerland Technology College (BTC) to pick up some beef jerky for my husband. (One of his many experiences in life was being a butcher, and he did his training at the BTC.)  So, I ran into the BTC. There was a gentleman talking with the clerk. The clerk said, “How’s the weather outside?”.  The gentleman replied by saying, “It’s as warm as a mother in law’s embrace”. I almost choked on the gasp that hit the back my throat when he said that.  How very rude! But it just goes to show that those jokes do exist. I’m trying really hard not to give those jokes any life. 

My relationship with my mother-in-law has been developing all the years that I’ve been married to her son. We’ve had some good times and we’ve had some struggles. But I think this is normal as you develop a relationship. I am truly grateful for her, because she gave my husband life.  Without her I wouldn’t have him and oh how boring my life would be. 

My mother-in-law has the perfect foot. And yes, I have unashamedly taken advantage of this. I do have a little—okay a lot of foot envy. She is able to walk into a shoe store and just pick the shoe off the wall and try it on. This would never ever happen to me in a million years. They just don’t have a double wide size 10 on the wall.  And a lot of stores don’t even have a double wide size 10 in their inventory. The fact that my mother-in-law can walk in just pick the shoe off the wall is awesome. 

On different occasions, when we’ve gone shopping together, I have asked her to try on the shoes that I only dream of trying on.  They’ve ranged everywhere from above the knee boots with high heels, to stilettos, flats, regular heels, and sandals.  I remember one time I asked her to try on these really high stilettos. She said to me, “Kim I’m not going to be able to walk in these.”  I said, “You don’t have to, just stand there”.  She willingly did that for me when I asked. I have appreciated her willingness to try new things. 

Jolene- My mom 

My mom is the queen of organization. Not to mention, the queen of list making. These two things probably go hand in hand. One of my mom’s favorite tools in the house was a yellow steno pad. Not the legal size but the smaller size. She would buy these in bulk from Costco. And she had them all over the house.

When I was growing up, on Saturday my mom would tell us the things that needed to be done. These were verbally done until I caught on to the fact that she was adding things to the list as soon as I got done with the other items, she said I already had to do. So, I said to my mom, “write it down and put it up on the fridge and that way I know that when my list is done”. After that the list was up on the fridge every Saturday, and some days it seemed like it was very long. But she and I had come to an agreement that once the things were done on the list I was done for the day. It worked well.

I think Thanksgiving was one of my mom’s favorite times of year. And it wasn’t because the family gathered.  It wasn’t because of all of the food that we would eat. I think she liked it because of the planning and the logistics of pulling off a Thanksgiving dinner for a large crowd.

One of the funniest stories we have in our family is what we dubbed the Thanksgiving epistle.  About a month before Thanksgiving one year, my mom—on her legal-size steno pad—had mapped out her Thanksgiving dinner. She had the menu planned well.  She had made assignments for each person in the family. But that wasn’t all, she took it a step further by putting the date and the time on it that each person had in the kitchen to complete their assignment.  It was planned to the half-hour (and she knew each person needed to be alone in the kitchen).  She posted this on the bulletin board so that everybody could see it. I think it was one of her proudest moments and brought her great joy.  

Fast forward a few years, my aunt (my mom’s sister) invited us to her granddaughter’s wedding shower. My mom, my three sisters, and I went. While we were there, my aunt shared with us that her and her daughters had put together a family recipe book.  She wanted to draw our attention to the stuffing recipe that was used for Thanksgiving. My grandmother (mother to my mom and my aunt) had very few instructions on how to make the stuffing. My aunt created a more detailed recipe, including the time to start and how to organize the making of the recipe—very, very detailed. While we were she asked us if we needed this information for Thanksgiving.  I jokingly said, “No we have the Thanksgiving epistle.” This did require a little bit of an explanation, but all of my cousins all nodded their heads in acknowledgment that the list, as detailed as possible, is part of being in this family.   

My mom used these organizational skills to run a household of 10 kids. Many times, she did it by herself. My dad worked from sunup to sundown and even had responsibilities in church that took him away from home in the evening.  She used these organizational skills to help a woman in our church learn how to manage her household of eight children. I remember my mom taking the time to teach this woman how to set a table, how to plan a menu for dinner, and how to create a grocery list. My mom enjoyed this opportunity to share these skills with other people.   

My mom has since passed on. However, I felt her strongly when I was planning the wedding of my first daughter. I know that she was pleased with my organizational and planning skills.  (Yes, I did pull out a steno pad, a calendar, and I created an agenda for the first meeting of the parents.  These skills run deep my friends!) 

In the poem, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, praising motherhood, written by William Ross Wallace, the last two lines of each stanza says, “For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world”.  Women are great influencers.  They make change happen. 

I wish you all the very best on Mother’s Day.   

What makes your mother unique?  What unique gifts do you bring to the world? 

Let’s talk about it…