Mother's Day

As we celebrate this day, I'm grateful that my mom's still alive. This picture was taken in Oct at her 83rd birthday party.

My mom was one of 8.......then she had 9 kids in less than 12 years (no twins). All you moms know how much work that was!

She often went non-stop from 5 am in the morning to midnight cooking, cleaning and running our household with such efficiency that she could have easily run her own business.......... and all without the benefit of modern day conveniences. I don't know how she survived on so little sleep and still was there for us, whether it was teaching us how to drive or dance.

How Mother's Day became a national holiday is an interesting story. It was started in 1907 by Anna Jarvis when 2 years after her mother's death she held a memorial to her mother. She began a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday. She finally succeeded in making this a nationally recognized holiday in 1914. The International Mother's Day Shrine was established to commemorate her accomplishment.

But in the 1920s, Anna Jarvis had become soured on the commercialization of the holiday. She actually incorporated herself as the Mother's Day International Association, trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and was once arrested for disturbing the peace. She spent her family inheritance campaigning against the holiday because to her it had become too commercialized.

So give your mom a call and let her know just how much she means to you! And remember, it's still the little things that mean the most to moms.