The History of Mother’s Day in the United States

Many families celebrate Mother’s Day every year. Have you ever wondered how Mother’s Day got started? Who thought of it? How did it get declared a holiday? Was it always celebrated the way we celebrate it today in the United States? The official Mother’s Day holiday, as we know it today, was started by Anna Jarvis. In 1905, her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Daughter Anna Jarvis wanted there to be a way to honor the sacrifices that mothers made for their children. It took financial backing before that dream was realized. John Wanamaker was a department store owner in … Continue reading

Picture-Perfect Mother’s Day

What are you asking for this Mother’s Day? A clean basement? Not if your husband’s idea of “cleaning” is tossing out all of your stuff. An expensive vacuum? Not if you have to use it more to justify the price. Breakfast in bed? Not if it means doing damage control in the kitchen until dinner. What about a peaceful day surrounded by the people whose existence affords you membership in the sweetest sorority on earth? This Mother’s Day consider cuddling up with your kiddos and enjoying a quiet moment with these picture-perfect holiday reads: The Berenstain Bears: We Love Our … Continue reading

How to Spare Your Child the Pain of Divorce

Norwegian researchers believe they know how to prevent the pains of divorce from being inflicted on innocent children. According to a new study entitled “Equality in the Home,” parents who share housework duties are 50 percent more likely to get divorced than couples where the woman does most of the chores. In other words, the more housework the man does, the higher the divorce rate. A part of me died typing that sentence. The rest of me is trying to swallow the vomit that’s pooled in my mouth. Basically, the study is saying that if you are a stressed out … Continue reading

Who Can You Trust?

I have major trust issues. And by major I mean I really don’t trust anyone. That goes triple when my child is involved. Make that quintuple. Let’s just say I am not the type of parent, who would drop off my 9-year-old kid at a municipal pool with five bucks for lunch and head to work for 8 hours, hoping that the lifeguards or other adults will make sure he’s alive and well by the time I return. For many parents, entrusting their flesh and blood to others is not a task they take lightly. And, no, I don’t buy … Continue reading

Unless You Are a Guy You Can Get Pregnant

Seven. That’s how many years it took before my kid asked the question. You know; the one that begins with “How” and ends with “do mommies get pregnant?” Before getting married and giving birth, I wondered how and when I would discuss the birds and the bees with my children. Well, I found out the when: July 2012. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite figure out the “how.” Sadly, I was not prepared to get into the nitty-gritty reproductive details with my second grader, so I mumbled something about God being in charge of giving the gift of life, blah, blah, blah, … Continue reading

Making Your Dreams Into Reality

As children we are told to dream big. The equal rights movement showed us that as women, we could do anything we put our minds to. Women like Florence Nightengale, Clara Barton, Amelia Earhart, and Sandra Day O’Connor have paved the way and given us hope to reach those dreams. As we become mothers, those dreams are often put on hold to care for our children. As single mothers, those dreams may seem almost unattainable, as you are working to support your children on your own. At the end of the day you are far too exhausted to think about … Continue reading

Happy Father’s Day Mom

Today was Father’s Day. I spent the day having a BBQ with some friends, none of our children were in attendance. We are single mothers, this is not our day. Yet for many of us, it still is. Getting your child for a day or two a month is not what it takes to be a father. Sending a child support check but not coming to their choir performance, is not what makes a father. Just like being a mother, being a father is made up of a million little things, most that we do without thinking. My daughter has … Continue reading

A Tiny Waist or Modern Conveniences- You Can’t Have Them Both

Did you know that women’s waists were six inches smaller in the 50’s? It seems that a by product of living in this century is a larger waist. Along with all of our modern conveniences that take the elbow grease out of scrubbing and our eight to ten hour days sitting at a desk, our figures are changing. If this is what they mean by evolution, they can have it! I don’t to evolve into someone larger. I guess our mothers and grandmothers did work harder than we do, even if they didn’t work outside the home. Our days may … Continue reading

Be Proud Of Your Accomplishments

I’m on kind of a rant tonight, I heard something that has just made me see red. I live in Utah, which is a wonderful place, I love it here, but what I heard today has made me mad. It seems that the schools don’t want the graduating seniors to talk about what colleges they got accepted to or what scholarships they received. Why, you ask? Because it may make the other students feel bad. Are you kidding me? I’m typing this and I’m stunned. I am all for protecting our children from what we can protect them from and … Continue reading

Every Day is Mother’s Day

Don’t we wish? Mother’s Day 2012 has come and gone, but if you are like me, then you are just now working on phase 2 of the holiday—scrapbook layout design. After all, you can’t create a memorable album or layout without relevant photos. I just got back a slew of photos snapped last week during our Mother’s Day celebrations. A lot of them were taken at the hotel where we had brunch and the park we strolled through after our gorge-fest trying to burn off some of the calories we downed at the all-you-can-eat Mother’s Day buffet. I grouped the … Continue reading