The Ages and Stages of Mothering and Mother's Day

Back in the day when my daughters were very young, the bulk of my time was spent doing for others.  What I really wanted for Mother's Day was for someone to clean my house and for, perhaps, some time for me.

Now that my children are grown, and I spend my day doing pretty much what I want to, I have a completely different idea of the perfect Mother's Day. I just want to spend time with my children. For the past several years I have been most fortunate to have one daughter close by, and we've had some lovely times together. This year was no exception. 

She brought over breakfast and coffee, went shopping with me, and then we and our guys watched the Dodgers on tv. I had a lovely chat with my other daughter, too. Even though the Dodgers did not pull through with a win, we did enjoy this sweetness, baked by C.

 ** After I posted this, I went back to read last year's entry on Mother's Day. Seems as though I have had the same thoughts for the past several years!

Six-Word Memoirs

When I was catching up on NPR Most-Emailed Stories podcasts, I heard about the six-word memoirs for mothers for Mother's Day. Because I was catching up, that meant that Mother's Day had come and gone, but I tucked away the thought in my brain for Father's Day. Of course, a life is impossible to distill into six words, but one can create an image in such a brief expression.

Because I missed Mother's Day, I will also offer up a memoir to Mom today, too. These particular memoirs highlight some of the gifts I received from my folks.

For Dad:

Chose my sins wisely, per Dad.

For Mom:

Punctual, with clean clothes and reliability.

I have been fortunate to have parents who love me unconditionally and supported me throughout my life in what I chose to do. They opened up a world of knowledge to me with travel and books. 

Thanks, Dad and Mom!

Thoughts on Mother's Day

I think it is funny that people associated with the colleges will remark that Mother's Day ALWAYS falls on graduation. This is year is one example where the two did not coincide.

When my girls were little, and mothering consumed most of my waking hours, what I wanted most for the holiday was a clean house (done by someone else!) and a little quiet time to myself. Now that my children are grown and independent, I relish the chance to connect with them on Mother's Day. I had a nice chat with one daughter on the phone and shared dinner with my other daughter who brought over some delicious blackberry tarts for dessert.

In-between-time in the afternoon, I did manage to have some quiet time to myself, and although the house was not perfectly clean, it was clean enough for me to enjoy.

Mother's Day

While trolling back through my blog entries for Mother's Day, I am reminded that we hold no tradition sacred for this day.  Each Mother's Day brings its own events, occasionally overlapping with commencement at the colleges.  Yesterday was one such overlap.

The day was so full that by the end I was too tired to blog.  Here is a brief recap.

• Women's Choir sang in church for the first time
• Brunch at HMC in celebration of graduation and to honor one of the trustees
• Commencement - the speaker was Bill Nye, the Science Guy 
• Chatting about Mother's Day with Lynn and Judy while waiting for commencement to commence 
• Briefly meeting Bill Nye and getting my picture taken with him
• Finding a little goodie on my front porch from Lynn
• Chatting with one daughter on the phone, one daughter in person
• Eating homemade fish tacos and enjoying a pale ale that came in the door with one daughter
• Watching the 2-hour Series Finale of Desperate Housewives

It's time to get back to real life and slow down a bit!