you mothers

Happy Mother's Day (+ 6 days) to mothers everywhere!



Kezia and Jasper

This Mother's Day, I have especially been pondering the other mothers I'm connected with via the blogosphere or other online forums. I have learned so much about mothering from all of you, and I've been challenged, surprised, relieved, weirded out, awed, and encouraged to to do the best job that I can do. Thank you each for taking the time to post about poopy pants and the crazy things your kids say to strangers, what you do right, what you do wrong, and the heights and angst of this wild ride called motherhood. It has truly been joyful to follow along with you through conversations and debates about everything from spanking to nutrition to television watching to laundry. Yes, we've laughed, we've cried, we've bought the onesie. Same goes for in-person friends and family, naturally (!!), and many of you online friends who aren't mothers but are wise and insightful nonetheless.

From the bottom of my heart, thanks for engaging with me in this way! Happy Mother's Day and beyond. xoo

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Every time I sit down to catch up on blogs, I get to read something awesome about motherhood; these two recent posts by friends are examples.

Here, Shelsea tells about paying her kids 10 cents a branch to help haul sticks and branches to the burn pile. The short of the story is this (but you'll have to read her post for pics): Luke, older by a couple years and wanting to collect the most money, kept whizzing past Daphne, leaving her to fall behind and to become more and more miserable in the inclement weather. Suggesting Luke encourage Daphne instead of compete with her wasn't working, so Shelsea offered to pay him for his encouragement. He then stayed right with Daphne, "telling her she was a big girl, and a good worker," and Daphne perked up and enjoyed the experience. Shelsea says Luke has continued this attitude with his sister now, totally outside of pay. Is that cuter than cute?! 

And here, Christi shows in photographs a night when two of her three boys just weren't connecting with the concept of bed time. Too tired to fight, she resigned herself to sit back and capture on film their moods and expressions. It's a great series of shots, and she concludes with the tear-jerking reminder, "I am thinking that someday after they all leave to create a life of their own and the house is too quiet, 8:00 at night will be one of the loneliest times of the day." 

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Then there was this article called, "The Weirdest Mothering Tricks In the Animal World" on msn.com just before Mother's Day. It might be gag material for some of you, especially the part about mother Stegodyphus spider rolling over and letting her babies kill her with their venom and eat her flesh. Then they eat one another until, I dunno, they decide there's a small enough number left to survive and thrive.

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And I sign off with this image. Sure, this mother's attire suggests she's strolling as opposed to jogging, but I'm gonna go ahead and call this a 90+ year old DOUBLE JOGGER. Such gadgetry has been possible ever since the invention of the wheel, but I was floored when I saw this a couple weeks ago at a memorial service. I don't know - I was struck by the repetition and similarities of motherhood through the ages.