Happy Mothers Day

Ok all you mothers, or daughters of Mothers. Happy Mothers Day.

To be honest I am posting this in April, why, because if I do it any closer to Mothers Day I will not be able to see the damn dang screen.  In a nutshell, I lost my mom 5 years ago, long story short, it was drawn out but sudden. 

This is MY MOM.

She was known by many as The Silver Fox or the Hat Lady in church.

 I am going to let you in on something that I think is very important to most daughters.  We daughters are the family gatherers and nesters, meaning we have the family parties, and the big celebrations are usually not passed on to us unless MOM is not there.  When my mom died, there were so many times that I reached for the phone....yep crying now...sorry.

I usually wanted to ask..... HOW DO I DO THIS (insert question here).......recipe, DAMN SLIPCOVER, kids or other type of question.

Back to the entertaining part.  Parties or celebrations, I don't know about your family, but my family the celebrations are based around food and family, in that order.  My mother did all of the cooking in our family, not one of us 3 girls was very interested or would she let us cook most times.  I must say though, my mom did teach me most of the baking so I have tons of Christmas cookie recipes. 

Anyway when it comes to these parties I was kind of lost, I did not do much cooking and with no one to call........so this is my remedy for MY daughter and children.  I made my own recipe book to pass on to my children. 

My book is filled with some recipes from my mom, grandma, sister (who went to school to be chef), my  friends and my husbands family (they come from a history of restaurants in the family).  If the food is great the recipe goes in.  Do you notice the extra papers hanging out, those are recipes that need to be tested before they can go in MY BOOK.

As you can see some of the recipes are hand written, some even in my mother's own hand writing.  The recipe above is my sister's recipe from college for frosting, mmm we use it for all our cakes.  The page below is a turtle cake I make for my sister every year for her birthday.  No calorie counting here!  This cake weighed 10 pounds, no kidding, we weighed it on a scale.  Oh sooo good!!

Some recipes come from books, magazines or computer.  I always add special notes; maybe something needs to be added, removed or done differently.  Sometimes I will write down when the recipe was first used and why I made it. 

I have my recipe book in some what of an order.  Breakfast, appetizers towards the front of the book.  Casseroles and main dishes in the middle.  The back of the book is filled with THE DESSERTS.  My book has scribbles and stains but it is filled with love.  These are the recipes my children will want to pass on to their children and I have made it so they can with ease.

So as much as we do not want to THINK of loosing our mothers, especially on today.  Take the time to ask for the special recipe, pattern, or even sewing tips from your mothers. 

Take it from me, that phone call is still unanswered.

The other Mother. 

 My dad did get remarried and her name is Bonita, but we call her Bonnie.  It was kind of a surprise and we may have been pains in the asses about it hesitant.  Bonnie kind of snuck in, she did not try to push, she just waited quietly and let us get to know her, like her and yes even love her.  We did get to know her, she is very funny, smart, helpful, mischievous and kind.  Did she try to replace our mother, no.  Does she lend a hand when we need it, involve herself in our holidays and family traditions, take care of my father (not always an easy task), give advice when asked, then the answer is YES, she is like a mother to us.  She is the BEST Grandmother to our children but if you ask my youngest son if she is Grandma he will laugh heartily, slap his leg and say "NO, THAT"S BONNIE."  Is she our mother, no but we are happy to call her FAMILY.

Today I am going to celebrate being a MOM with my family.  As you may have read in earlier posts we are having a Mother's Day Brunch.  This is a tradition I have been hosting for at least the last 7 years.  Most of my family and my husband's mother come here for brunch because Mr. M. makes a mean breakfast and I make all the sweets.   Oh yes girls, he cooks and bakes pies.  You will have to come back for Father's Day to learn more about Mr. M.

Thank you for reading my story and I hope my idea helps someone else to preserve some special moments.

So for me, please give your mothers or daughters an extra hug.