Heading into Mother's Day I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to my Mom. I wrote about Mom's love, care and self -sacrifice as she took care of my Dad- here. Love Steps Up She naturally demonstrated the same characteristics as she raised her 5 kids, as well as many foster children, also. Here's to you Mom!
Food and Fun
I had a Pinterest cool Mom, way before Pinterest was a thing. Let's start with birthdays! I loved that Mom let us pick out whatever our favorite meal was and she would make that for our birthday meal. Spaghetti with Mom's delicious meat sauce and Chicken and Broccoli were some of my favorites. Mom was known for her delicious cooking. She definitely had her own knack for it that I haven't developed. She is one of those add a pinch of this or toss in some of that cooks. I haven't learned that ability yet, I have learned that things go much better when I have a defined recipe to follow. Dad was of a waste not want not mentality, which is great unless that means you are to eat liver, heart and whatever else grossness from the animals we butchered ourselves. How I loved and appreciated that mom fed some of those things to the dog when Dad was away. We still had to eat some of it, thanks to Mom though, not as much. Mom also made the coolest shaped birthday cakes. I think they were from a Baker's Coconut cut- up cake book. We would pull out the booklet as our birthdays approached and choose which one we wanted. I remember the hot air balloon being my favorite. They were spectacular, and not once did I ever hear my mom complain about making them. The joyous memory of these awesome cakes and a mom that wanted to make our birthday special remains with me.
Mom was also awesome at making cool boxes for Valentine's Day. I don't know where her ideas came from- because I am not naturally creative, but they were cool. She also gave us paper lace hearts on valentines day that were special coupons- I can't remember exactly what they were for but things like getting to choose a dinner meal, or not having to do a chore. It was lovely.
Mom also had the philosophy that if you got a day off for bad weather in the winter, that you should also get a day off for nice weather in the spring. She tried to make work fun, by having a job cup, that along with chores we had to do, if we got lucky maybe we would pull the "chore" of taking a 10 minute break.
I can't write about my mom and not mention her love of flowers. She had many flower beds and always took a bouquet of flowers to church. She always sent them home with someone and I know she thought about who might need some brightening in their day as she chose who to give them to. I loved growing up with some many flowers around, often making my own vase of flowers for my room.
My Dad worked out of town for weeks at a time, so my mom raised us almost as a single mom. I don't know how she did it. 5 kids, 42 acres of land, farm animals, huge gardens. Sometimes a running car, sometimes not. She has told me time and again that you just do what you have to do. Because what other choice is there? That has been a great example to me. She was the one there figuring out and managing the day to day needs of kids and the farm. She helped the livestock through birthing issues, buried dead animals and chased cows many times. She canned tons of food, gave birth to 5 kids, not one born when Dad was home, and raised those 5 kids to be functioning adults. I know that she had great struggles and I'm sure she often felt alone and didn't know how she was going to do what had to be done. However, I'm so thankful that she did and so are my siblings. Mom has touched many lives and has taught me the importance of always moving forward and just doing what needs to be done no matter how hard it is. However, she also brought joy and happiness to our lives by all of the other things mentioned above, teaching me to find the beauty in the daily routines. Here's to you Mom! Happy Mother's Day with lots of love!
And so it goes...
Just Read- "Rain Village" and "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend"
