
I love Mother's Day for five reasons:
1. I was born on Mother's Day (don't even ask what year)
2. My Sonshine gives me a reason to celebrate
3. It was first celebrated as a holiday in W.Va.
4. I love the beautiful art work my son makes just for me. Hubby also takes him to the store and they decorate a pretty cake for me also every year
5. We get better gifts than dad does (no ties).
M - O - T - H - E - R
"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell
"MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.
Howard Johnson (c. 1915)
Just for Fun:
Find out what type of Mother you are with this quiz: Parent Soup
Print this list out and give to your family for Mother's Day. Made to Order
Take this quiz and see how well you do. TV Mom Trivia DearMom.com
Send FakeMail ... it's real fun! Make Mom's day special by sending her a beauty-pageant invitation, a talent-show assignment or a supermarket etiquette reminder. FakeMail Gags DearMom.com
How many times have you used these sayings? Motherly Reminders DearMom.com
Don't you wish you had these tests before the kiddies came?
Preparation for parenthood is not just a matter of reading books and decorating the nursery. Here are 12 simple tests for expectant parents to take to prepare themselves for the real life experience of being a mother or father.
1. Women: To prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag chair down the front. Leave it there for nine months. After nine months, remove 10% of the beans.
Men: To prepare for paternity, go the local drug store, tip the contents of your wallet on the counter, and tell the pharmacist to help himself. Next, go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to its head office. Go home. Pick up the paper and read it for the last time.
2. Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels, and how they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior. Enjoy it -- it's the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.
3. To discover how the nights feel, walk around the living room from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds. At 10 p.m. put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep. Get up at 12 a.m. and walk around the living room again with the bag until 1 a.m. Put the alarm on for 3 a.m. Since you can't go back to sleep, get up at 2 a.m. and make a pot of tea. Go to bed at 2:45 a.m. Get up again at 3 a.m. when the alarm goes off, sing songs in the dark until 4 a.m. Put the alarm on for 5 a.m. Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.
4. Can you stand the mess children make? To find out, smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains. Hide a fish stick behind the stereo and leave it there all summer. Stick your fingers in the flowerbeds then rub them on the clean walls. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?
5. Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems: first buy an octopus and a string bag. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this--all morning.
6. Get an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a can of paint, turn it into an alligator. Now get a toilet paper tube. Using only scotch tape and a piece of foil, turn it into a Christmas tree. Last, take a milk container, a ping pong ball, and an empty packet of CoCo Puffs and make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower. Congratulations, you have just qualified for a place on the play group committee.
7. Forget the Miata and buy the mini-van. And don't think you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that. Buy a chocolate ice cream bar and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there. Get a quarter. Stick it in the cassette player. Take a family size bag of chocolate cookies. Mash them down the back seats. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There! Perfect!
8. Get ready to go out. Wait outside the toilet for half an hour. Go out the front door. Come in again. Go out. Come back in. Go out again. Walk down the front path. Walk back up it again. Walk down it again. Walk very slowly down the road for 5 minutes. Stop to inspect minutely every cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect along the way. Retrace your steps. Scream that you've had as much as you can stand until all the neighbors come out and stare at you. Give up and go back in the house. You're now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.
9. Always repeat everything you say at least five times.
10. Go to your local supermarket. Take the nearest thing you can find to a preschool child with you. A fully grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily accomplish this DO NOT even contemplate having children.
11. Hollow out a melon. Make a small hole in the side. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side. Now get a bowl of soggy Fruit Loops and attempt to spoon it into the hole of the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane. Continue until half of the Fruit Loops are gone. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on the floor. You are now ready to feed a 12-month old child.
12. Learn the names of every character from 'Barney and Friends,' 'Sesame Street,' and 'Power Rangers'. When you find yourself singing, "I love you, you love me" at work, you finally qualify as a parent.
A History of Mother's Day
By HOLLY HILDEBRAND
Houston Chronicle Interactive
The first celebrations in honor of mothers were held in the spring in ancient Greece. They paid tribute to Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 17th century, England honored mothers on "Mothering Sunday," celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
In the United States, Julia Ward Howe suggested the idea of Mother's Day in 1872. Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, saw Mother's Day as being dedicated to peace.
Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia is credited with bringing about the official observance of Mother's Day. Her campaign to establish such a holiday began as a remembrance of her mother, who died in 1905 and who had, in the late 19th century, tried to establish "Mother's Friendship Days" as a way to heal the scars of the Civil War.
Two years after her mother died, Jarvis held a ceremony in Grafton, W. Va., to honor her. She was so moved by the proceedings that she began a massive campaign to adopt a formal holiday honoring mothers. In 1910, West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother's Day. A year later, nearly every state officially marked the day. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Mother's Day as a national holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May.
But Jarvis' accomplishment soon turned bitter for her. Enraged by the commercialization of the holiday, she filed a lawsuit to stop a 1923 Mother's Day festival and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a war mothers' convention where women sold white carnations -- Jarvis' symbol for mothers -- to raise money. "This is not what I intended," Jarvis said. "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit!"
When she died in 1948, at age 84, Jarvis had become a woman of great ironies. Never a mother herself, her maternal fortune dissipated by her efforts to stop the commercialization of the holiday she had founded, Jarvis told a reporter shortly before her death that she was sorry she had ever started Mother's Day. She spoke these words in a nursing home where every Mother's Day her room had been filled with cards from all over the world.
Today, because and despite Jarvis' efforts, many celebrations of Mother's Days are held throughout the world. Although they do not all fall at the same time, such countries as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Belgium also celebrate Mother's Day on the same day as the United States.
Great Mother Day Link's:
Rexanne's Mother's Day
Carolyn's Universe Mother's Day Site
Mother's Day on the Net - Welcome
Mom's Day Fun at Kid's Domain
It's Our 1999 Mother's Day Celebration!
Happy Mother's Day- Kids' Exchange
Billy Bear's Happy Mother's Day
Happy Mother's Day! -- Parent Soup
MOTHERS DAY GREETINGS FROM GCARDS
Mother's Day Poems
Annie's Mother's Day Page
Mother's Day Celebration at Peggie's Place - MamaQuest!
Special: Mother's Day on the Web 1999
An Angel
Once upon a time, there was a child ready to be born. So one day he asked God: They tell me you are sending me to Earth tomorrow but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?
Among the many angels, I chose one for you. She will be waiting for you and will take care of you. But tell me, here in Heaven, I don't do anything else but sing and smile, that's enough for me to be happy. Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you every day. And, you will feel your angel's love and be happy.
And, how am I going to understand when people talk to me, if I don't know the language that men talk? Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak.
And, what am I going to do when I want to talk to you? Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray.
I've heard that on Earth there are bad men, who will protect me? Your angel will defend you even if it means risking it's life.
But, I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore. Your angel will always talk to you about me and will teach you the way for you to come back to me, even though I will always be next to you.
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could already be heard, and the child asked softly: Oh God, if I am about to leave now, please tell me my angle's name. Your angel's name is of no importance. You will simply call her "Mommy."
Author Unknown
What's Cooking on the Web:
Don't you dare cook on this day. Give this to the kiddies or the hubby (or significant other) to do. Or better yet--go out to breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Mother's Day Food & Cooking
HomeArts: Entertaining With Ease -- A Mother's Day Celebration
Mother's Day Breakfast In Bed
Happy Mother's Day Breakfast
Mother's Day Dinner
Mother's Day Candlelight Dinner
Mother's Day '99 recipes on StarChefs
Holiday Recipes: Mother's Day
Great Freebies to get:
You guys know me, have to give at least one freebie, pass this to someone who becomes a Mom on Mother's Day, they can get a free camera on Mom's Day KODAK: Creating a Picture Perfect Mother's Day My Mom is many years too late. (Don't even ask how many years late she is)
I know I have put this freebie before, but has Mother Day Cards for free by email. Mother's Day Animated Electronic Greeting Card Page
Want to give your Mom something unique and exciting for Mother's Day? How about the gift of fame? You can make her a star in a matter of seconds DearMom.com Put Mom in the News
ClubMom - If you're a mom, you're a member. Free Chocolate for registering.
Puter Stuff:
The (Clip) Art of Mothering - Mother's Day Clipart
Mom's Day PC Program
Mom's Day Mac Programs
Mom's Day Clip Art
Victorian Art For Mother
Happy Mother's Day- Kids' Exchange
DearMom.com - Greeting Cards - Mother's Day - Mother - Mom
DearMom.com Fool Links - Bogus Web Pages
Mothers Day
Something to make you think:
Check it Out!
Mother's Day Trivia, Folk Customs, Myths and Fun Facts from Around the World
Some tribes of people, like the Assam in Africa, don't call themselves families. They call themselves "maharis," or "motherhoods."
Rosa Parks was the mother of bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that launched the Civil Rights Movement.
Chinese family names are often formed (begin) with a sign that means "mother". It's a nice way of honoring their moms long past.
The ancient Greeks celebrated Mother's Day in spring, like we do. They used to honor Rhea, "mother of the gods" with honey-cakes and fine drinks and flowers at dawn. Sounds like the beginnings of the Mother's Day tradition of breakfast in bed!
Mother Shipton was a Prophetess in Britain 500 years ago. She could see the future, and predicted that another Queen Elizabeth would sit on the throne of England. (QE II)
Japan's Imperial family trace their descent from Omikami Amaterasu, the Mother of the World.
Julia Ward Howe wrote the Battle Hymm of the Republic and was a staunch fighter for women's rights. She staged an unusual protest for peace in Boston, by celebrating a special day for mothers. Julia wanted to call attention to the need for peace by pointing out mothers who were left alone in the world without their sons and husbands after the bloody Franco-Prussian War.
Hindu scripture credits the Great Mother, Kali Ma, with the invention of writing through alphabets, pictographs and beautiful sacred images.
George Washington once said, "My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her."
The Greek word "meter" and the Sanskrit word "mantra" mean both mother and measurement.
Mother Goose is one of the most popular of all children's entertainers. Her books and stories have been loved for many generations.
Native American Indian women have long been honored with the name, "Life of the Nation" for their gift of motherhood to the tribes.
Ancient Egyptians believed that "Bast" was the mother of all cats on Earth, and that cats were sacred animals.
Rose Kennedy once said, "I looked on child-rearing not only as a work of love and duty, but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world, and one that demanded the best that I could bring it."
Buddha honored mothers when he said, "As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, loves and protects her child, so let a man cultivate love without measure toward the whole world."
Mother's Day is now celebrated in many countries around the world. Australia, Mexico, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Russia, China, Thailand, all have special celebrations to honor Mothers, but not in the same way or on the same day as the United States.
In the Bible, Eve is credited with being the "Mother of All the Living."
During the 1600's, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday." Servants would go home to see their families, bringing cakes and sweets to their moms. This custom was called "going a-mothering". Each mother would receive a simnel-cake (Latin for "fine flour) and mother's would give a blessing to their children.
Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia began the campaign that brought about the official observance of Mother's Day in the United states. Her mother died, and Anna wanted all mothers to be remembered. She asked that white carnations be the official mother's day symbol. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed the orders that made Mother's Day a national holiday.
Just nine years later, Anna filed a lawsuit in an effort to stop the over-commercialization of Mother's Day. She lost her fight. Now, cards, letters, candy and dinners out mark Mother's Day for most families. Anna had hoped for a day of reflection and quiet prayer by families, thanking God for all that mothers had done.
Mother Earth is also known as "Terra Firma". That title is a Latin translation of some lines from one of the Greek poet, Homer's, greatest poems.
Top 10 List of what Moms REALLY want for Mother's Day!
10. To be able to eat a whole candy bar (alone) and drink a Coke without any "floaters" (i.e., backwash).
9. To have my 14 year-old answer a question without rolling her eyes in that "Why is this person my mother?" way.
8. Five pounds of chocolate that won't add twenty.
7. A shower without a child peeking through the curtain with a "Hiya, Mom!" just as I put razor to my ankle.
6. A full-time cleaning person who looks like Brad Pitt.
5. For my teenager to announce, "Hey, Mom! I got a full scholarship and a job all in the same day!"
4. A grocery store that doesn't have candy/gum/cheap toys displayed at the checkout line.
3. To have a family meal without a discussion about bodily secretions.
2. To be able to step on a plane with my toddlers and NOT have some pencil-neck-yuppie-geek moan, "Oh, no! Why me?"
And the #1 thing that moms REALLY want for Mother's Day is....
Four words: Fisher Price Play Prison
Girls this is what dreams are made of!!!!!
For Inspiration:
Tender Intuition (For my sonshine, Joey)
I hold you in my arms, young prince. You sleep in sweet, heavenly peace. Yet, I wonder if you would be so calm if you knew the truth: I am your mother. And I don't have the slightest idea what I'm doing. You are my first baby ever. My only son. I was just getting used to being pregnant, and now here you are! And you are so very, very real.
I've been preparing for your arrival for months. I've read the books. Well, some of them. A few pages. I've listened to my friends who give me endless advice. They're all experienced you know, because they have their own babies. But you're different. You're my baby. And they don't know a thing about you.
I do. I know all about the way you kick and wiggle. I've already memorized the way you smell, like a fresh-from-the-earth daffodil. I know about the way your lower lip quivers when you're about to cry. I know that your wispy hair is the most luxuriously soft thing that has ever touched my cheek.
Yet I admit, there's much I don't know. In the hospital I had to be instructed on how to nurse you. Yesterday my mother showed me how to bathe you in the sink. I don't have a clue how to clear up diaper rash. I get queasy at the sight of blood. I don't sew. I'm not good at salt dough maps. My math skills are atrocious. And you might as well know right up--that wiggly teeth give me heebie-jeebies.
However, I am very good at baking cookies. I know how to make indoor tents on rainy days. And I have my father's wonderful sense of humor so I know how to laugh and how to make you laugh.
I'll sing you sweet songs in the night. I'll pray for you every day. I'll let you keep any animal you catch, as long as you can feed it. I'll call all your imaginary friends by their first names. I'll put love notes in your lunch box, and I'll swim the ocean with you, even when I am old.
Perhaps my best qualification to be your mother is that I share this privilege with the most incredible man in the world-your father.
Such secrets of mother hood can't be learned over coffee with friends. They can't be taught by a book, or even by trial and error. To me, these tender intuitions are what matter most. Eternal insights only a mother can know-when her baby is in her arms as you are in mine now. This is where the Lord will teach me how to mother you by heart.
Little Angels (dedicated to my little angel Leigh)
When God calls little children
to dwell with him above,
We mortals sometime question
the wisdom of His love.
For no heartache compares with
the death of one small child
Who does so much to make our world
seem wonderful and mild.
Perhaps God tires of calling
the aged to his fold,
So he picks a rosebud
before it can grow old.
God knows how much we need them,
and so He takes but few
To make the land of heaven
more beautiful to view.
Believing this is difficult
still somehow me must try,
The saddest word mankind knows
will always be "Goodbye."
So when a little child departs,
we who are left behind
Must realize God loves little children,
Angels are hard to find.
Author Unknown
Thanks Angie for finding this for me.
MOTHER'S DICTIONARY
BOTTLE FEEDING: An opportunity for Daddy to get up at 2am too
DEFENSE: What you'd better have around de yard if you're going to let de children play outside.
DROOLING: How teething babies wash their chins.
DUMBWAITER: One who asks if the kids would care to order dessert.
FAMILY PLANNING: The art of spacing your children the proper distance apart to keep you on the edge of financial disaster.
FEEDBACK: The inevitable result when the baby doesn't appreciate the strained carrots.
FULL NAME: What you call your child when you're mad at him.
GRANDPARENTS: The people who think your children are wonderful even though they're sure you're not raising them right.
HEARSAY: What toddlers do when anyone mutters a dirty word.
IMPREGNABLE: A woman whose memory of labor is still vivid.
INDEPENDENT: How we want our children to be as long as they do everything we say.
LOOK OUT!: What it's too late for your child to do by the time you scream it.
PRENATAL: When your life was still somewhat your own.
PREPARED: A contradiction in terms.
CHILDBIRTH PUDDLE: A small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry shoes into it.
SHOW OFF: A child who is more talented than yours.
STERILIZE: What you do to your first baby's pacifier by boiling it and to your last baby's pacifier by blowing on it.
STOREROOM: The distance required between the supermarket aisles so that children in shopping carts can't quite reach anything.
TEMPER TANTRUMS: What you should keep to a minimum so as to not upset the children.
TOP BUNK: Where you should never put a child wearing Superman jammies.
TWO-MINUTE WARNING: When the baby's face turns red and she begins to make those familiar grunting noises.
VERBAL: Able to whine in words.
WHODUNIT: None of the kids that live in your house.
WHOOPS: An exclamation that translates roughly into "get a sponge."
Smiles and Sunshine,
Deneen