Happiness is Living Through Motherhood

Happy Mother’s Day to everybody who is surviving the experience.

One of my earliest memories of motherhood was when my tiny little daughter who was too young to talk yet crawled all the way to the top of the stairs in the two seconds I took my eyes off her, and then when I called her name, turned to look and fell all the way to the bottom. My latest memory? Talking to her on the phone last night about surviving motherhood (hers) and life in general and hearing about her three terrific children, none of whom has fallen down the stairs that I know of. As if that weren’t enough on her plate, she mothers me. Guess she’s forgotten the stair debacle.

Call your mother, Argh. (Not necessarily the person who gave birth to you. You know, the person who mothers you. That one. Call her. Or him. Or them. Pick up that phone.)

32 thoughts on “Happiness is Living Through Motherhood

  1. You’re obviously a good mama, Jenny. Your daughter keeps you in line! 🌻

    I live with mine. She hates Mother’s Day. Has made me return gifts I bought before. 🤣 I’m a lucky girl, I have to pull my weight and appreciate every day. 😘

    šŸ˜† Happiness is my birthday. Was up at 14.30. Rearranged my bookcase, wardrobe, drawers, bed, and small cupboard in my bedroom to make space to do yoga in the middle. Our winter is coming and I want to be ready to be my most energised and healthy.

    Took a long drive (86km) to a nursery to buy hibiscus for home and spekboom for work. And a had meal at an authentic Indian place nearby. Real naan, chicken kadai, and a sweet coconut, sultana and almond filled naan that they call Amritsari naan. Seems like a type of kulcha, not naan. Since it’s a rural area, we were the only people eating in a 24 seater venue. It felt good to be out and about.

    KwaZulu-Natal is BEAUTIFUL, and I am grateful every day for being here. I cross a bridge over a visible-from-the-car river on my way to and from work and every day, I say “so pretty.”

  2. I plan to call my favourite aunt this afternoon – she has been my emotional support since my mother died 5 years ago.

    Lots of rain this week which means migraines. However, sunny today and I’m going to get out into the garden. Received some plants I ordered by mail and they need to go in the ground as soon as possible.

    Virtual chats with 3 friends this week – little likelihood that the lockdown will be lifted next week but at least I can see my friends via FT.

  3. Awww. My daughter called this morning. I’m giving my mom time to wake up before calling. 🤣

  4. I found an Aussie meat pie bakery in L.A. and told the kids no gifts just meat pies, sausage rolls, lamingtons, and their company. The food was delivered yesterday and there was soooo much. Then I found that several of David’s friends are coming too. They are without a mother, or a mom at long distance and long ago I was adopted by them. Such hungry men, I wonder if we’ll have enough food.
    We’re all vaccinated, but will eat poolside just to be safe. The weather here is gorgeous. Wherever you are and however you celebrate, or don’t, I hope you have a lovely day.

  5. Agree motherhood is happiness. I was blessed with an awesome mom and an awesome kid, so I lucked out on both sides:)

  6. All my children fell off the stairs. Yes, I put children’s gates at top and bottom but they still managed to do it and always on my watch too. They are all adults or nearly so in my daughter’s case (her 18th birthday is next week) and they seem fine :).

  7. My one son is calling in 15 minutes, my other son lives with me and bought me plants for Mother’s Day, and we are going to a belated Mother’s Day Brunch tomorrow with my son, ex, and my mother-out-law. She’s 92, and getting a little foggy, but is still the best thing (aside from my children) from that marriage. (The ex and I get along ok, hence the brunch. She’s wonderful!) But this is a timely reminder to call my Bonus Mom in Spokane; thanks!

  8. I went to see my mom yesterday and bought her a cucumber plant in a basket instead of a basket of flowers. She really likes cucumbers and the basket means she will be able to put it somewhere the horses can’t get into it so she will actually get cucumbers this year.

    Also, I’m now done the biggest part of my census work (and the 2700 km of travel that came with it, most of which was traveling from home to my work area and back). A few hours of verifying/mistake fixing and making my workbook neat and tidy and I’ll be done. Unless they need me to do follow up on the people who don’t fill out their forms that is.

  9. I wasn’t going to comment, because it’s not a meaningful holiday for me, but I planned to loiter to soak up everyone else’s happy, and it looked (at noon-ish) like no one had commented, and I came back now (2:30-ish), and there were still no comments noted, so I clicked to ask if there was a commenting problem, and found there were a bunch of comments.

    Maybe it’s just me, but I figured I’d ask if anyone else is seeing this. The main post just says “leave a comment” where it usually says “X comments” after X comments posted. FWIW, I’m on a desktop PC, Chrome browser.

    1. P.S. Now it says there are ten comments. Maybe because stupid anti-virus had removed all my cookies a few days ago, so the site didn’t recognize me? Except that shouldn’t affect being told how many comments there are, should it?

      1. This comment # inconsistency has been happening for me, too, Gin. For quite a while now. New posts often list 0 comments until I click in and then see in fact there are however many made at that time, aka a lot:)

        I have no idea why it’s happening and it’s been going on for me so long I now just disregard the 0 thing and pop in to see the truth for myself.

        For me, it’s got nothing to do with cookie clearing, either. And sometimes it seems to update a day or two after the post is live. No answer as to why, just mentioning in solidarity:)

      2. I’ve also seen disparity between number of comments listed and then, clicking on the post, actual comments. PC using Firefox.

        And as long as I’m here – happy Mother’s Day!

  10. Spent a good part of the morning ‘motherinng’ my plants, before the rain began again.

    1. Spent almost the whole day with and at my parents, esp. my mom. My bunch came along, too.
      We ate well, went on a looong walk, had a long rest at the cemetary (a very nice place and not gloomy at all) and got back to cake and ice cream (the family did, I was still too stuffed with lunch).
      My mom is great, heck, both my parents are great. Quirky, loving, and wonderful great parents.

      Also, today was the first day of summer, bright sunshine with around 30 degrees celsius. A few days ago, I still needed my woolen coat…
      Tonigjt, Cycling back home at 9pm, I still didn’t need a jacket.
      True continental climate: One day it’s winter, then just a blink later summer has arrived.

  11. Lovely day. My daughter and my housekeeper wished me a Happy Mother’s Day. My parents’ anniversary-my birthday-mother’s day-my mom’s birthday fall almost within 2 weeks of each other; add the beginning of end-of-school events and I used to dread the crazy times that started at the end of April. Mom and my mother-in-law are gone and the kids are long out of school and I’m 11 years past teaching, so I’m enjoying mellowness now.

    Today I wandered in my gardens, threw out most of the birthday flowers, did all my exercises, and began to organize files. Nice way to spend the day.

  12. We called my M-I-L and will visit her next week, so virtue is high. I will also deliver the large piece of poster board with “then and now” pictures on it. It probably won’t actually help her remember her great grandchildren, but worth a try. She’ll like receiving it, anyway.

    Other than that, built a fire, watched rain, lazed around with trusted re-reads, and ate more than I needed to. A perfect Sunday.

  13. I already sent my mom a virtual card from Jacquie Lawson which she responded to. She’s in CA and I’m in NY, and the time difference sometimes makes things tricky, but I’ll probably call her after my dinner and before hers.

  14. I’ve been thinking about both my parents a lot this week. When I was little we would cook breakfast for Mom with great ritual and a handwritten menu, but my favorite Mother’s Day memory is from the later years of my Mom’s life. Several years she gave my Dad a card because he “made her what she was today”. I miss how much they loved each other and us.

  15. My mom’s 91st birthday was Wednesday, so we had 3 small parties, so it was COVID appropriate, and also not overwhelming. She has aphasia, so it’s hard for her to feel included in larger groups. So one dinner, one coffee get together, and one drinks by the sea side. Then, as usual, Mother’s Day follows closed behind. So this morning pancakes and a bouquet from the garden, and tonight dinner and a martini.

    The coming week is my last free week before the new job starts (I hope). I’m trying to figure out if there’s someway I can get a fun day in there away from anyone but myself and strangers, who may bring me lunch or something. I know I was often idle for the last year, but I was not often having unstressed fun. But I need to do some paper projects, go get a new drivers license, etc. also this week. But a day of fun on my own would be good.

  16. My uncle was a florist, so my family never did much about Mother’s Day. His single busiest day of the year, even surpassing days when he had two weddings and three funerals. So I tend to think of it as a commercial holiday, not a family one.

  17. We just finished an early dinner at my Mom’s. She’s happy because we could all be together, maskless. Plus my sister’s partner bartended with some excellent (and strong) drinks, so I don’t think we’ll ever let him leave the family now.

    There was a moment earlier today when I didn’t have my contacts in and I saw my mom out of the corner of my eye and for a fraction of a second I thought it was my Grandma, who passed about a year and a half ago. It was kind of bittersweet to see all the similarities.

  18. Mother (n). One person who does the work of twenty. For free. See also: Saint, Wonder Woman.

    Happy Mothers’ Day to all.

    1. This quote came my way this morning, and I thought you’d like it:

      Moms are like Velcro — they hold everything together and I have no dang clue how.

  19. Attention Murderbot Fans:

    Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory is available on Amazon for $0.99. Also Nook and others.

    It is still free-to-read on the Tor website. In order, it comes between Exit Strategy and Fugitive Telemetry.

  20. This was the first Mother’s Day without my mother to call or send flowers to (she died in October). Was very sad…

    On the lighter side, my stepson sent me a lovely card for Mother’s Day, which is wonderful. He lived with us from the age of 12 onward (mother lives in another city), so I got him through the awful teen years, and I have to say that, even with all of the usual conflicts at that age and a fairly significant crisis around the age of 16, in spite of everything, he never once said, “you can’t do/say/make me, you aren’t my mother”… He’d mutter and slam doors, but never, ever, ever once said that to me, and I think this says a lot about him as a person.

  21. When I was 2 1/2, we traveled from San Diego to Minnesota for my grandfather’s funeral (my poor mom, my dad was deployed so she had to wrangle an 8, 4, and me on this trip!). My grandmother had a piano, which I took great delight in, and a two-story house, which was new to me. When we returned home, a neighbor asked what I’d done on my trip. I replied, “I sing the piano and fall down stairs.” My first trip report, but not my last.

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