Mother's Day

How intimidating for a new mom to be speaking on mothers day. As Eric and I were talking this week he pointed out that motherhood is like a recipe. There are two parts first where it came from and second the ingredients. As for me it has been passed down for many generations from Tolina, Carrie, Sadie, and Elva My great grandmothers, to Thelma, Annie, and Catherine my grandmother’s and most recent my mother Betty. Although many other mothers have added to my knowledge my mother has been my greatest teacher.
I find strength in her calm reassurance, her patients is almost endless, her love is boundless. I know I have her support. Every week I look forward to her letters most of the time they include tid-bits from her calendar about motherhood “Raising children is the most difficult, laborious, committing, routine and exhausting job one can imagine. It is a job that requires modesty humility, presence, patients, and most important a great deal of maturity of charter” “You will judge yourself by how you children turn out” my mother says “How True” “One question moms should never ask their teen…… ‘Do I look like an idiot to you?’” “Mom is who catches you when you fall and we all fall.”
My mother is the person in my life who has always been there for me no matter what. What I did, What I didn’t do, What I should have done, And How I treated her. As the saying goes “What goes around comes around” well Eric and I are in for it that is for sure.
When I was very young I ran to my mother to fix a booboo. When I was young I ran from my mother because she was so out of touch, but as with most moms she was just a step behind, waiting to catch me when I fell, or to pick me up when I needed to fall.
As I have gotten older my mother is one of my closest friends. The person I call daily, the person whom I ask for advice. The person I seek approval from knowing that she may not always approve but her support is never ending.

The recipe: What is not included in motherhood? A mom had many jobs everything from a short order cook, to a taxi service, a mechanic to a seamstress. We may not always like the job at hand, but as with my mother she completed it with love. Always telling my MOM does not stand for My Own Maid.
Motherhood is more than a job in many different ways first of all a mothers’ day does not end at 5 or 6, I am sure that most mothers’ days end between 11 and 12 with the starting of the dishwasher and a load of laundry. Then the next day starts at 1am with a hungry baby, a sick child, or a soccer uniform that has to be washed because tomorrow is picture day.
But through our day as a mother we complete the most important parts of the recipe to teach our children through example. “You can’t teach children to be good the best you can do for your children is to live a good life yourself. What a parent knows and believes the children will lean on.” As sister Hinkley commented on mothering effectively. As mothers we love without boundaries with all of our being.
“It has never been so important that children have a home that is a place of refuge a place of peace and a place of unconditional love, even when a report card is not what we had hoped for.” Sister Hinkley described the home I want for my children. I pray that as a mother my children know that my actions are full of love even when they don’t like what is going on or the answer to a request.
I would like to share some thing I need help remembering on a daily bases.
God please do not let me miss those moments that I could have spent with my child. Let me carry her more often and feel her tiny body gently wrapped in my loving arms, for someday I will not have the strength to pick her up anymore.
Let me hold her close to smell her freshly washed hair and breath in that wonderful baby sent that covers her delicate skin for surely she will not smell this deliciously sweet for very long.
Let me enjoy changing her diapers for this gives me the chance to play with her miniature toes and tickle her tummy and make her feel comfortable, someday she will ask me to leave and shut the door behind me claiming she can manage by herself.
Let me take more walks with her in her stroller while I can look down at her little face that is staring in wonder at this new world all around her let me do this often for son she will be able to walk on her own and leave the safety of her carriage.
Let me stand beside her crib at night for longer than a moment to watch her surrender to her peaceful slumber. These nights spent in a crib will be replaced soon enough by a much less cozy place for dreams.
Let me make her laugh every day for I am sure the precious sounds of her first giggles are apt t change with time.
Let me delight in each and every mile stone she reaches before I know it walking and drinking fro a cup and other small miracles she has learned will seem ordinary.
Let me tell her how much I love her since there are bound to be times when she will not want to sot still to hear this.
Let me continue to listen attentively to her even after she has mastered the art of talking. Since people tend to listen less closely to a child once language becomes fluent.
Let me make time for peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake and other baby games there will come a day when she will no longer want to participate in such childish antics.
Let me learn to enjoy the sound of her calling my mommy even if it is yelling through the dripping of tears for one day I will no longer me “mommy” to her but rather just mom.
Let me be the world to her right now because as every mother sadly comes to realize, their babies soon discover the world out side of their mother’s arms.
Let me do these things and so much more despite being busy, tired and overwhelmed because I would hate to look back and harbor regrets of times gone by that were lost to less important things than my daughter.
Yes, Dear Lord I want my daughter to grow up to be a strong loving and intelligent women but please Lord do not let this happen overnight because someday memories will be all I have.
Adjectives have been changed for me and Lena but Michelle Mariotti originally wrote this prayer.
“As we change diapers and wash sticky little fingers, give driving lessons and coach little league watch our children marry and hold our first grandchild we are reminded in countless ways that motherhood is a journey that never ends” anonymous
“Nothing is more rewarding” B Diaz
Have joy in your children
Have joy in your mothering.