The Cellar - Mothers Day

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What cha doing for that special mommy in your life. My mom is in a old folks home with dementia and not much memory. We will send her some flowers. For the wife, maybe breakfast in bed or at least coffee. Maybe out to breakfast. Youngest daughter is going to clean the house for her (which is a big deal in this house).

Quote:

Mother's Day History
Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day."

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers."

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. In 1914 Anna's hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday.

At first, people observed Mother's Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents, and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis became enraged. She believed that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In 1923 she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day festival, and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations for a war mother's group. Before her death in 1948, Jarvis is said to have confessed that she regretted ever starting the mother's day tradition.

Despite Jarvis's misgivings, Mother's Day has flourished in the United States. In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest traffic, as sons and daughters everywhere take advantage of this day to honor and to express appreciation of their mothers

http://mothers-day.123holiday.net/

I suppose I could send some flowers to Fordham University Medical School since that's where we donated her body when she died in 1996. They might still have parts of her tucked away in some beakers or slides.

My mom is deceased. So, I'm wishing my sisters and other close-friend moms a happy day, by email or telephone.

Happy Mothers' Day, Cellar Moms!!

My mom's passed on too. So is my MIL. Just another day.

Mothering Sunday in the UK is in March

Fuck, man. I'm sending her a cheesy E-card I guess.

Merc, I really enjoyed that little history lesson :) It ties in nicely with my current area of research. That period (particularly in America) saw a real flourishing of 'sisterhood' amongst early feminist women. The 'cult of domesticity' and 'true womanhood' included a veneration of motherhood, that became a really useful vehicle for political/social agitation. It started as something potentially quite oppressive (all part of the separation of male and female domains), but the activities of women like the ones mentioned in the artcile show how it could also be a tool for empowerment.

Mothering Sunday, which is the European celebration, and predates Mother's Day by many centuries, was entirely patriarchal and had none of the elements of empowerment. It's still referred to as Mothering Sunday here, though Mother's Day is what it's called in the shops, but it carries far more of the American style connotations now than it used to.

We were gonna give her a suprise dinner, I ruined the suprise part. I forgot it was supposed to be a suprise. I hoping that her forgetfullness kicks in, and she forgets all about the dinner, so that it will be a suprise again.
Oh and we bought her a new screen door, the other is all scratched up at the bottom from years of doggies wanting in or out. I think that thats still a suprise...

I go to my mom and dad's or one of my brothers' houses almost every Sunday, but we never plan anything until the last minute so as far as I know we will be at mom and dad's on Sunday. My brother will pick up chicken or my other brother will grill out, depending on the weather, so mom won't cook...though she loves making Sunday dinner and we love eating it, we don't let her cook that day. I usually help clean up anyway. Probably get her something nice for her beautiful yard/gardens.

I better call my brothers and find out what's going on for sure. Someone in my family being proactive? Weird.

I honor my daughters, who are mothers, and they honor me on that day. I think about my mom who passed away many years ago.

Meh, it's just a warmup for Father's Day anyway. :haha:

My mom's at Lake Titicaca, I think. So I'll send her an e-mail.

My wife will get breakfast in bed, and we'll do an outdoor family activity (hiking) then I'll make dinner. Basically, she gets the day off, but is spending it with us.

I went to Savannah and spent the day with Mom. Took her to Carey Hilliards for lunch and spent most of the rest of the day watching home movies and looking at family pic albums. Had a great time. Here's a pic RF yesterday: (with Dad)
Attachment 23347:D

WOW Cap. I missed any message from you. Did you try to give me a call? Happy MD to all. Make it special.

I am LOVING your Dad's shirt, there!

The boys had a gift for me this morning (girls are out of town, made it hard for these guys!). It was an awesome fillet knife!! I've been wanting one.

Yay!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary (Post 564421)

WOW Cap. I missed any message from you. Did you try to give me a call? Happy MD to all. Make it special.

Only had just the one day to spend. Had to be back home before too late.:(
I'll prolly be going back down there for summer vacation for a few days. Maybe we can hook up for a drink or two when I do. Let you know. Vacations are rather sporadic so I'm not sure when it'll be.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnhowdy (Post 564522)

Good enough, let me know when you are around and we can have a few beers.

I did the marketing (which was sweet ... only a minor assortment of dads out doing the shopping, which is unusual, especially on the first day the sale flyer is active), then engaged in the argument that is traditional amongst my peoples ...

wolf: What do you want for dinner?

momwolf: What do you want?

wolf: It's Mother's Day. You get to choose.

momwolf: Okay, what about Chinese?

wolf: That's fine.

momwolf: Oh, but look at how expensive it is, especially if you want the soup and the entree and the fried rice ...

wolf: It doesn't matter how much it costs. I'll have it delivered on gold plated plates, if you want it. It's Mother's Day, get what you want.

momwolf: (goes through the whole pile of menus in the take out drawer) You eat out all the time. I never get to eat out.

wolf: Which is why you're picking what YOU want for a change.

momwolf: I could cook that chicken ...

wolf: Yes, you could, but that would defeat the purpose of you not doing anything like that because it's Mother's Day.

This, incidentally, went on for at least another 15 minutes, and she ended up deciding she wanted Panera.

Thank goodness. She could have been deciding for another couple hours, and then fallen into a funk because I wouldn't make up her mind for her.

I have tried explaining that I made other people's decisions for them EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE and when I say "I don't care what we're having, what do you want" I mean it.

wolfsister wins the big prize this year ... she sent an Edible Arrangement.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolf (Post 564817)

Thank goodness. She could have been deciding for another couple hours, and then fallen into a funk because I wouldn't make up her mind for her.

I have tried explaining that I made other people's decisions for them EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE and when I say "I don't care what we're having, what do you want" I mean it.

Good God that sounds just like my wife. Every weekend.

I always thought that was a gender specific issue. . . guess not.

Me: So where you wanna eat?
Friend who is girl: Doesn't matter. I'll let you choose.
Me: OK let's do chinese.
Fwig: We always go there. Why don't we do something different for a change?
Me: Like what?
Fwig: We haven't had Italian in a while.
Me:
(quietly drives to Mama Mia's.....)