day after Mother's Day

I celebrate the 'day after celebrations'.  Mothers Day, Christmas, Valentines are huge impactful guilt felt celebrations.  I care about Moms and the sacred Christmas time.  Valentines is just sooooo creative and so red and heart shaped and jewellery giving and eating in romantic restaurant celebration.  If you are not in love or in a relationship or don't have a friend, or a Mom or family then those celebrations need to celebrate the love to the homeless, to the mental health facilities and poverty in YMCA centres. 

 I just don't get why I have expectations for this day.  Like some amazing prize is going to be delivered to my door and I will open up this prize, because it is in a beautifully wrapped box or a gorgeous basket covered in gold cellophane...I mean my imagination runs wild.

I know I am a Mother and I have had wonderful things done for me and gifts given to me.  Does it have to happen every year on a certain date?

Hallmark did a wonderful job getting in on this day.  It's bigger than Christmas and I celebrate the day after Christmas too!  Those days after  'THE DAY" celebrations are great.  Pressure off, it's over, expectations gone.  I celebrate the survival because I work mentally hard to process the ridiculous

expectations.  I believe in the "work" to get that perception turned into gratitude and simplicity of the

event.  

If Mother's Day and Christmas were not celebrated and so globally franchised the day would be sweeter, more subtle, more surprising.  I mean family can think of surprising one with a gift or special work done and a baking treat without the hoopla!  like that word btw because my mom used to say it all the time.  Just go and surprise someone, just because.  Keep the originality of anytime is a good time to share gifts. 

Let's forget the global nation and everything we now know about around the world horrors, and the more we love, the better we are, I AGREE.   Specifying a specific date on a certain type of status or gender and celebrate that symbol of mother, father, dad, mom, grandma....and so on then it gets really complicated and overwhelming.   It's the specified date, the actual day that we are INFORMED and flashed everywhere to do something for whom ever you feel pressure to do something for on that specific date. 

I left the house this morning after 9 am and drove my car to a place where I could be myself again.  Peace and quiet to think and refresh, get a new grasp, and find my soul.   

Until next year at this time...

Mothers Day and Loss

Mother's Day is Sunday! 

 I feel the pressure, the expectations, 

and then I remember it is just a

day that celebrates a Mother.

well...

It hits a mark for so many of us and losing a child

is just a bull's eye for some pain, guilt, anger, why me? (emotions)

I like to think I can handle this day like others, I have accepted it as is,

it doesn't fix anything so...

 So I needed to do some history first:

• On May 10, 1908, three years after her mother's death, Anna Jarvis held a memorial ceremony to honor her mother and all mothers at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church.

• In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.

• Although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother's Day, she became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday.  She would later denounce the holiday's commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar.

• Mother's Day is the second most-popular holiday for gift-giving, following Christmas.

• Hallmark began creating and producing Mother's Day card in the early 1920s.

                                   

I am blessed to still have my mother here with me and I do celebrate her!

however.....

I decided to make myself a personal gift and pull out a couple of Mother's Day cards

and early photos of myself, with Graham and Tommy.  I lost Graham 15 years ago so it does me good to have these pictures and Mother's Day cards to look upon.

makes my heart smile!

(Graham meets Tommy for the first time)

 The Great Sandhills in Southwest Saskatchewan

This was a very fun day together!

I have no advice really for getting through Mother's Day.

 as it can make me feel 

inadequate still and just because I lost a child and the reminders of women and men who have not lost,

sure seems to stick!

Plan for it!

Acknowledge the feelings!

I do honour Mothers,  do not misunderstand me and this day.
 I make sure I do things that make me

honour myself and appreciation that I am still a Mom
 and I have my blessing, Tommy who

looks after me and loves me well!

Happy Mother's Day! 

You deserve this celebration.

Mothers Day 2016

my day began with a phone call from my son

(I love that boy)

as he wished me a Happy Mother's Day and said he loved me.  What

more do I need than that.

After that wonderful phone call,

we dressed for a hike and headed to Duck Mountain Prov Park

for a long walk along the beach and down through the baseball diamonds and

picnic areas to the homes and cabins at Jubilee Subdivision and then

back through a hiking trail to the rec centre and back to the lodge.

This was what I planned for my day.  I like to hike!

A fabulous breakfast brunch buffet was waiting for us

at the lodge.  It was very good.

to end the day my husband made super fantastic fluffy

pancakes for supper.  OMG I ate 5!  

I did receive a lavish gift too, a hoe.  Hubby even sharpened it

for me too.  I do like to weed flower beds and gardens it is great

exercise and I got this from my own mother who loved to pull weeds and could not

tolerate seeing them invading the ground.

so here is to hoeing!

Brian wanted me to show how nicely he sharpened the blade!

This will be extremely helpful.

we are planting our first garden since 2012 and

now have the time to look after it so it is something we can do

together.

here is to gardening in 2016!