10 Ways To Say “I Love You Mom!”
BY Richard Leder
Ah May.
your mom.
Do you really think a single box of chocolates fits the bill with all she means to you? If so stop reading (and do your own laundry). But if you’re really ready to throw caution to the wind and go all out for the woman who went all out for you here are 10 wonderful ways to tell your mother she’s still the one.
It’s your wonderful life Mom
If your mom is like most moms it’s not her first time at the dance. She’s lived a long full life filled with twists and turns ups and downs ins and outs and zigs and zags. If you’ve got a gift for words why not write her life story as an epic poem? If you’re more of the hemming and hawing type Life Poem writers available for hire (check the Internet) are willing and able to turn the facts of your mother’s life (supplied by you) into beautiful words and deliver a hand-lettered document perfect for framing.
Laughter is the best medicine
Who makes your mom laugh out loud? Bill Cosby? Bob Hope? Richard Pryor? Carol Burnett? George Carlin? Jerry Seinfeld? Ellen DeGeneres? Gallagher? Carrot Top? Larry The Cable Guy? Rent some hilarious DVDs of your mother’s favorite funnymen (and women) pop a bag of popcorn and settle in for an unforgettable night at your own Mother’s Day Comedy Club.
Baked with love
Remember when you skinned your knee that first day you could ride a two-wheeler? Remember how Mom cheered you up with a plate of home-baked cookies and a cold glass of milk? Want to make your mom feel as good as you felt that day? Here’s how: Turn on the oven follow our recipe (shared by local baking legend LuLu) put the milk on ice and tell your mom everything’s going to be all right.
Currant Snaps
Yields: 60 to 75 cookies
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg beaten lightly
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup moist dried currants
In a bowl sift together the flour cornstarch baking powder and salt. In another bowl using the mixer cream the butter add the sugar a little at a time continuously beating and beat for two minutes. Add the egg and the vanilla and beat for one minute. Add the flour mixture in two batches blending at low speed after each addition until it is just combined. Stir in the currants and chill the dough covered for at least three hours or overnight.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Roll level teaspoons of the dough into balls and arrange them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Flatten each ball with the tines of a fork pressing the tines in one direction only to form an oval cookie with a ribbed design. Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for eight to nine minutes or until they are golden around the edges. Transfer the cookies to racks and let them cool.
A tree grows in Mom’s house
Here’s one that’s easy fun a touch crafty and full of little tugs at your mother’s heartstrings. First find a very small special branch in the yard where you grew up or any yard if your childhood yard is long ago and far away. Second plant that branch in a pretty clay pot with enough soil to hold it up like a tree. Third attach love notes to the branches of your little tree. Each note should tell your mom specifically — think times dates places and reasons — why you love her. This gift is guaranteed to turn even the most urban mom into a tree hugger.
A greater grater
Is your mom still cooking with the same gear she had when you were a kid? Bring her into the new millennium with all new kitchen gadgets and gizmos. Fill a new mixing bowl with a snappy salt shaker and peppermill a garlic press a cheese grater a pasta strainer measuring cups and spoons a vegetable peeler a teapot an assortment of wooden spoons and spatulas a new timer and all the other little tools and utensils that she never had a moment to replace. Throw in a promise to do the dishes for the rest of your life and don’t be surprised to find your favorite mom-cooked meal on the table the next time you come to visit.
A day out of days
A card won’t cut it. You know it we know it and she knows it though she’s too dang nice to say anything. So allow us: Your mom deserves more. To brighten her smile for a long time to come fill up a whole day with wonderful events that would take her a whole year to get around to. Start with breakfast at her favorite haunt then take her to the museum stroll slowly through the art and remember together your finger paintings on the refrigerator. Buy her lunch on the river or at the beach or someplace she talks about but never goes. Send her to spend the afternoon at a local spa. Give her the full treatment: hair nails massage facial everything. Dinner is on you too so don’t skimp. She’s worth a million bucks so treat her like it. Finally take in a show together or a movie or browse through the bookstore and drink a cappuccino. She’ll never forget this day and neither will you.
Memory lane
If your mom’s house is like most houses hiding in the hall closet are shoeboxes filled with family photographs that have never seen the light of day. You have the power to change that truth. Get a gorgeous photo album and sort arrange organize inset and label these important pictures in such a way that flipping through the images of her life (and yours too) will bring a smile to her face and a tear to her eye. This will be her favorite book of all time. She’ll read it over and over again even though she knows the story by heart.
Make a donation
Besides you to whom does your mom’s heart go out? Does she volunteer at a local charity? Is she saving the whales? Feeding the hungry? Building houses for the homeless? Is she teaching less fortunate grownups to read? Helping women fight breast cancer? Promoting the arts for children in need? Instead of buying her another calico apron make a donation to her important cause; tell her you care about what she cares about. You’ll feel good she’ll feel good and your Mother’s Day celebration will be shared with those who need precisely what your mom gave you.
One bodacious basket
A tisket a tasket fill your mom a basket … of everything she loves. Chocolates? Absolutely. Buy her multiple bars a variety of flavors and put them in there. Picture frames? Why not? Plan on placing some meaningful shots in those frames and put them beside the chocolates. Tea? Yes. Tickets to a show? Of course. Her favorite flowers? No-brainer. Gardening gloves? New dishtowels? A book she’s been dying to read? Yes yes and yes again. Get the point? All of it. Every little thing that makes Mom happy goes in the basket. Make a handmade card to go with it present it with a hug and a kiss and you’ll make Mom’s day no doubt.
Time and time again
For the next moment forget everything you just read and remember this: Of all the treasures in this world none compares to the time we spend together. Time is finite and irreplaceable. When time is gone there’s no getting it back. Stop whatever you’re doing on Mother’s Day and make a commitment to do nothing but hang out with Mom. It doesn’t matter if you play a board game bake a cake walk on the beach or sit on the porch and shoot the breeze. These are the times of your life; this is your mom … put your feet up and spend the day doing nothing but telling her how much she means to you. Happy Mother’s Day y’all.