These were our thoughtright before Mother’s Day 2018:

MAY IS ALWAYS FULL OF FUN

Funny how some things always remind us of other things; when the Kentucky Derby has been run; I always know it is time to get ready for Mother’s Day.  Since my favorite horse lost BIG this year; I’m hoping to halt this trend with a wonderful Mother’s Day celebration.  A few of these beginning thoughts resemble last year (after all it is an annual event); so bear with me until we get caught up here.

Since I’ve raised four kids and now have three grandchildren you might think it strange that I would even be concerned about preparing for this day; after all; isn’t this day all about me?

IT ISN’T ALL ABOUT ME

Funny you should ask. I’m at that “in-between” age. In-between taking care of my own Mother, and helping my grown children with the grand kids.

The truth of the matter is; though the day is special for me in MANY ways; it definitely ISN’T all about me! I’m one of a house full of Mother’s in the family.

When your grown children marry; they also have mother-in-laws to tend to on Mother’s Day.

In our case; though I raised our kids in our home; their father (my husband) and their birth-mother divorced when they all were very young. They all have their birth-mother to think of too.

Two of my daughters are now mother’s themselves; they need a little Mom-time with their own children on Mother’s Day.

Then there is the fact that I’m very blessed to still have my own Mom with me.  She is the pretty lady in the photo.

So you are getting the picture; and you can understand that the day is a bit hard to coordinate here.

I usually solve that problem by focusing on my own Mom and entertaining her at our home while exercising the open-door policy. Whoever can come over whenever they can schedule it on that day is welcome.

MAINTAINING AN OPEN DOOR POLICY

This means I usually prepare to have drop-in guests and unexpected surprises at any of the three meals of the day; and so I get prepared for that possibility. I don’t always use all three meal plans; but I try to have a plan in place just in case it is needed; and it has to be one that will accommodate either a large or small amount of people (depending on who shows up when.)  If you want to see how I managed to do this last year; you can click this link:  https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/cake-tree/; sorry but there is no photo contest being held this year; so make a note of that if you read the old link.

Usually, for all the above reasons, my main goal on Mother’s Day is simply to be flexible, have a stocked pantry and a pretty, clean house with easy-quick-to-fix food and a big smile on my face. If it works out where I don’t use half of the things I have on hand; no problem – my husband and I enjoy it all during the rest of the upcoming week.

I invite my own Mom over for lunch and I try to prepare things that can be made ahead; kept refrigerated and pulled out when needed. I love finger-foods and salads and sandwiches that are easy to pull out and arrange in pretty dishes.

Usually I like to prepare enough for lunch to last through two meals just in case everyone else comes straggling in whenever they can. I keep a few extra desserts on hand with lots of coffee and wine, tea and soft-drinks. It always works out somehow and we all manage to enjoy the day because I keep this open-door/drop-in-whenever you want mentality going on.

Nevertheless; it means I get to plan for an uncertain amount of guests. I actually enjoy the mystery of it all; and hope for extra surprise people whom I didn’t anticipate to show up.

A SPECIAL TREAT IS EXPECTED THIS YEAR

This year is extra special because we really DO get some extra company since my cousin from Georgia is bringing my favorite uncle to join in with us.  I’m so happy they  have decided to come spend the day with us. This fact has turned out to be a great surprise in the middle of the usual festive mix. My Mom is delighted to know that we all will get to have lunch together at our house. It will be great fun. We don’t get a chance to see them very often.

So this week I’m busy working on a simple, yet cheerful decorating scheme and planning the easy-to-prepare food menus.  Last year I had time to do a lot of cooking and it turned out lovely.  This year my goal is to keep things simpler; because the time I have for preparing things is much less this year.  Though I’m definitely keeping it simple; I plan for it all to be lovely and elegant and tasty.  The trick is to have a few favorite short-cuts up your sleeve; and I do have a few of those planned.  I’ll tell you about them as we go along.

PLANNING FOR EASE AND SIMPLICITY

I have a few favorite places to get easy-to-prepare foods. Most of that easy preparation means simply pulling it out of the pantry or refrigerator.  I hope I have your full attention now.  LOL.

One of my favorite haunts is Edgar’s Bakery; especially for Mother’s Day surprises. Their cakes are so lovely and I’m having visions of a “Southern Lady” cake for my Mom. All the pink and white icing will add a splash of color to our table. 

Well; it will except for the fact that I’m going to request that they use deep purple instead of pink this time because as I’ve thought through my decorating theme; and I’m loving the idea of some bright yellows mixed with some deep purples as my color theme.  I already have a lot of yellow going on in the main parts of the house; so all I’ll have to do is use a splash of deep purple here and there. 

Again, this will be easy, simple and uncomplicated.  I’ll try to post photos in The House Doctor column later if I get the time.  If you love changing your decor to match your seasonal theme; I do have these photos here from last year’s Mother’s Day celebrations when we had a blast with the color pink.  Check it out – but remember that was last year; don’t enter any of the contests I might mention…..https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/miracles-and-metamorphasis/.  

Getting back to this year’s food plan:  my dear uncle LOVES ice cream; so I’ll get a few different flavors that will go well with the pretty Mother’s Day cake.

Otherwise; I’m thinking a fruit tray, a vegetable tray with dips and chips, a mixed sandwich tray and a fresh tossed salad on the kitchen table. Simple, elegant, easy. Everyone can help themselves to whatever they want.

For the sandwiches; I love to use chicken salad from The Chicken Salad Chicks. I think I’ll go load up on a mix of their chicken salads. The flavors they offer are terrific and everyone always loves their food.  I hope you have one in your part of town.  I don’t know how we ever survived without them before.  They are the greatest!  Just google them.  Their history is an interesting read.  

So; guess what?

No heavy cooking on my part after all.  Just a lovely little colorful feast of light snacks that most everyone enjoys with cake and ice cream for dessert.  This amount of good simplicity will leave us all more time to talk and enjoy our visits. I’m SO looking forward to that part of the day.

UNIQUE MOTHER’S DAY GIFT IDEAS

As I mentioned previously; last year we really went all out with the house décor. 

Everything was pink!!!

It turned out lovely too. 

I filled The IN SEASON Lifestyle family tree up with black and white photos of the Moms in our family. I gave them to my Mom as a gift in the end of the day. It was a great idea if you are looking for something unusual.  

A funny story about that gift is that she called me up at work only a few days ago and said “I was cleaning up papers in my attic and found all these black and white photos that are amazing! I just can’t remember where they all came from or when I got them.” I got to remind her that I made them for her on Mother’s Day last year and that they were all the Mother’s in our family as they were going about their days of being Moms. She remembered it all then and I could tell it was a sweet memory.   I also reminded her that one of my daughters had given her the pretty hat-box styled photo boxes that contained those photos.   

Now she remembers and she says how much she just loves having all those candid photos in her possession. They have been fun for her to look at and she has been going through them all week.  She lost another dear friend this week and they have helped to cheer her up.  This little conversation reminded me again that you never know what the simplest little thing is going to do or how it will intersect with someone else’s destiny.  I loved pondering this after we hung up the phone.

I will post The IN SEASON Family Tree photos for this year some time soon. I’ll be leaving the May Family Tree up all through the month of May.

Our theme – butterflies! 

Mom’s represent the possibility of new life; and I think butterflies are definitely appropriate.  Of course, most of them are going to be deep purple in color. 

This year I’m going to make my Mom a pretty gift basket filled with some of her favorite books and magazines and movies and some sweets and treats to enjoy while she indulges in their pleasures.  I’ll also add some prints of photos of our family with her in the park on Resurrection Day just recently.  They are such sweet photos and I know she will love having those memories of a perfect day.

NO STRESSING THIS YEAR

What about you?

Are you stressing over ideas for good Mother’s Day gifts?  Here is a link to an article that we posted last year which shared some really unique Mother’s Day gift ideas; some of them are not very expensive and all of them are lovely and thoughtful:  https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/mothers-day-gifts/.

Are you looking for a menu and some good recipes to prepare yourself?  Check out this post:  https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/seasons-menu-mothers-day-luncheon/

With this post and all the old posts I’m sharing you might think this will be the only new Mother’s Day post for this year; but I hope not!  I’m trying to get the time to interview a few 30-something Moms to get their take on Mother’s Day.  Look for that article soon.  Mom’s these days have so many more issues to deal with; and I think that is well worth considering.  A tough job has become so much harder in so many ways.  My hat is off to all younger Moms who are struggling with keeping their values and teaching them to their little ones. 

Also; I want to write about the value that ALL Mom’s put into our daily lives.  Hopefully those articles will be posted before the big day.  If there isn’t time – we may go into reflection mode and post them anyway.

In the meantime; enjoy the feast of ideas we have rounded up for you here.  If I get the decorating done in time; I’ll post pics in The House Doctor column of the blog too.  I’ll tell you ahead of time though that the secret is in the flowers.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY EVERYONE!!!!

ENJOY YOUR SPECIAL WEEK.