Happy Mother's Day!

A wealth of emotions run through my soul every year at this time. It is on Mother's Day when I think of my mother who died when I was 22 years old from cancer. My mind and heart dwells on the woman my dad remarried and who I now think of as mother, a friend, and in some ways my very soul mate.

I was so richly blessed to have the mother I did. It was her face I saw every morning when I woke up and it was her beautiful face I saw when I was tucked into bed at night. My mother brought joy, laughter, history, the love of music, and a thirst for continual knowledge. My mother installed in each of her children valuable characteristics we hold close to our hearts. I knew God lived because my mother knew God lived. I also knew when my mom knelt to pray God heard her morning, evening and silent prayers. Above all, I knew and my siblings knew, mom loved dad and dad loved mom!

After my mom died, another remarkable, feisty, humorous, compassionate and spiritual woman entered our lives named, Francine Smith Swanson Larsen. The world may label Fran as my stepmother, but I call her 'MOM' (or if you look at mom upside down it spells, 'WoW!)! This precious angel may not have rocked me to sleep at night, but she has wiped away my tears. She was with me when I married Lynn. One mother set my foot on a certain pathway and the other mother is making sure I stay on that straight and narrow path.

Before Fran and dad got married, our family size consisted of five. Our family doubled in size and blessings when mom brought with her four amazing daughters and one remarkable son. Our family unit is now eleven!!!! All nine of us know our mother believes in God and that she loves God. We also know that God hears our mother's morning, evening and silent prayers as she petitions her pleas to God. All nine of us know mom loved dad and that dad was completely enthralled and in love with mom!!!

I am so blessed on this eve before Mother's Day to ponder and to be blessed by two extraordinary women in my life who I call, 'MOM'! I walk(ed) and talk(ed) with angels on earth and I call them 'mom'! No angel in heaven could be as beautiful or exemplary as my mom(s).

I never had the chance to meet Lynn's mother. She died from cancer before Lynn and I were married. From the pictures I've seen and stories from my father-in-law, her children and friends, she too, was admired and loved by all who knew her. Lynn's mother was God-fearing. She had a voracious appetite and love for music, literature and gardens. Lynn's mother's proudest achievement was her five beautiful daughters and two handsome sons. My mother-in-law's daughters (my sisters-in-law) radiate their mother's image to me every day by their kind hearts and benevolent love towards their own families and to complete strangers. In my sisters-in-law, my brother-in-law, and in my husband's eyes and mannerisms, I see and love Lynn's mother!!!

To our mothers and to all the women in our lives who are mothers or will eventually be mothers and who holds destiny's future in their hands, Happy Mother's Day!

PARENT / GRANDPARENT

Job Description:

POSITION:

Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma, Grandma, Gammy, Grams

Dad, Daddy, Dada, Pa, Pop, Grandpa, Papa

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Long term, team players needed, for challenging,

permanent work in an often chaotic environment.

Candidates must possess excellent communication

and organizational skills and be willing to work

variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends

and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.

Some overnight travel required, including trips to

primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless

sports tournaments in far away cities!

Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The rest of your life.

Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5.

Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.

Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule

and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat

in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.

Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges,

such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers.

Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and

coordinate production of multiple homework projects.

Must have the ability to plan and organize social gatherings

for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.

Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embrassment the next.

Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a

half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices.

Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.

Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product.

Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and

janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION:

None.

Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and

updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:

None required unfortunately.  On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION:

Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses.

A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because

of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent.

When you die, you give them whatever is left.

The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that

you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS:

While no health or dental insurance, no pension,

no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered;

this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love,

and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right.

** FOOTNOTE **

THERE IS NO RETIREMENT - - EVER!!!!!!!!!