Every Beetle Is A Gazelle In The Eyes Of Its Mother.

The title for this post is a Moorish Proverb, I like the imagery and it seemed like an ideal title for a post about Mothers Day. I had a lovely day on Sunday, the girls (with a little help from their brother) cooked a roast beef dinner and it was really nice, the carrots were fantastic and I am not usually a fan of carrots. They bought me a beautiful locket too, so I felt extremely spoilt.


In the afternoon we all went to see my mum, spending Sunday afternoon with her and my stepfather has become a bit of a family tradition. My brother and my nephew usually pop in too and it is lovely to have an unhurried couple of hours with all the people that I love most. My mum takes pleasure in feeding people, and she and Robbie have developed a mutual admiration, he loves her cakes and she is pleased that her baking brings so much pleasure. On Sunday he tucked in to her legendary pineapple cake, but he likes everything that she cooks. I think almond tarts are my favourite, mum makes amazing pastry. We bought mum a CD and a book for Mothers Day, and the girls bought her some lovely flowers, she loves flowers, but I am not keen on having flowers in the house, I don't like watching them die.


My mum and I are different in so many ways, she loves fashion and always wears bright colours, she is passionate about jewellery, she likes having her hair done, she wears make up always because it makes her feel good, she loves to shop and she likes going out. Those who know me will know that I am not like that, I couldn't be less interested in fashion, and I don't like bright colours. I like blues and greys and I tend to stick with colours I am comfortable with. In my late teens I remember having a brief phase when I liked brown, my mum was horrified, she said "you can wear that when you are dead!" but she has always respected my right to express myself my way. I would rather have my teeth drilled than tolerate anyone messing with my hair, I hardly wear any make up and I detest shopping. Given the choice I prefer to be at home rather than going out. We are different but in the things that matter we are very similar, family always comes first with mum and she has always been there to share our joys and our sorrows. She taught me that women can do anything they put their mind to and they can do it better than men because women read the instructions first! She taught me to keep trying and never to be beaten by circumstances, she gave me the confidence to be me , to stand up for what I believe and not just follow the crowd, and she gave me values and standards to live by. So you see we are not so different after all! My mum is not really the sort of mum to give advice, she just teaches by example, but I do recall one little gem of wisdom from around the time of my first marriage "men are like dogs, if you don't train them young you will always have problems" - so that's where I went wrong with Robbie!!


It's not easy being a mother.  If it were easy, fathers would do it.  From the television show The Golden Girls