Mother's Day

Thursday: Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/861

Rice



Reflections from the Backcounter


Let's get planning. Mother's Day is on Sunday!!!
Mother's Day. A day like no other. A day for all mother's to celebrate and enjoy the gift of motherhood. This is the day when mother's are supposed to rest, relax and be pampered by their adoring families. The brainchild of a West Virginia woman, Anna Jarvis, Mother's Day was declared a national holiday by Woodrow Wilson in 1914. Soon thereafter it became apparent that Mother's Day offered significant opportunity for commercialization. Greeting cards and Floral arrangements became customary gifts for mothers.

Fast forward to our current reality.....Restaurants filled to overflowing with families waiting to be seated for brunch, hordes of men grabbing the last remaining Mother's Day cards in the grocery store aisle during the Sunday morning coffee run, and of course the wonderful homemade macaroni and glue flower pots, cards and refrigerator magnets that are made in the elementary school projects.
Mother's day can actually be a scramble especially for sandwich moms...those are the moms who are actively mothering children and also attending to the needs of their own moms who are now elderly. Mothers who are "sandwiched" between two generations of need (kids and elderly parents) are often too busy doing for others to take time for themselves. How best can all of the expectations for Mother's Day be met? Who gets the designation as "the Mother" Who cooks? Who cleans? Who relaxes? Who gets stressed out?

Maybe simplification is the answer.

Here are some ideas gathered from friends and family for celebrating Mother's Day:

1. Have a multigenerational celebration. Celebrate all mothers and share the cooking and clean up. Everyone bring a dish and have a casual meal

2. Picnic with the family in the park. Little to clean up and food can be simple

3. Skip the busy overcrowded and usually expensive restaurant meals.

4. Have a dinner and a movie night on the Saturday before Mother's Day

5. Send all the mothers in your life to the spa for a day of relaxation and make dinner for them when they return (hint to all men reading this blog)

6. Do nothing...rest and relax.... a forced celebration is often more stressful than doing nothing.

7. Help the mother in your life plant her summer garden or flowers.

8. Clean your mother's house

9. Wash your mother's car!

10. Serve your mother breakfast in bed

11. Do all the laundry in the house.

12. Take a family hike and picnic on the trail

13. Pick flowers from the garden and make a bouquet

14. Have a casual cook your own omelet brunch

Mother's Day does not have to be more work for the mom in your life. Remember....it is meant to be a day for celebration and enjoyment. Simplify and enjoy!!

Peace,

Julia