Good Morning, Everyone 
If we were having coffee together, I’d report that it is pouring rain. I have to cancel an Arboretum stroll with my mom this morning. We will catch up on Mother’s Day festivities tomorrow with my sisters’ and brother’s families. I am so happy that one of my daughters will be able to make it, although I will have to whip up a gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian dish for her alongside the eggplant stacks I will cook for Sunday. My two other daughters and grandbabies won’t be near so phone calls will have to suffice (sigh). The clan will also be celebrating my dad’s 85th birthday on Sunday. Thankfully, he is well and is still an A-1 Daddy-O.
Today, I am cooking a quiche to bring to the Nellie-Bly dinner party at the captain’s house. We are an all-gal sailing crew and can’t wait to get on the bay. The season starts in a few weeks. Before cooking, I am going to a local children’s book writers’ workshop. I am still promoting my memoir, Hug Everyone You Know, but my heart belongs to children’s lit. There are loads of publishing trends and details to know. Writing had taken a back seat this week—last week, too—frustrating. I need to find my groove in getting the middle-grade novel finished. I made myself a deadline to have it ready for agents’ eyes by August.
It was another busy week at school with Teacher Appreciation Week and Mother’s Day Tea and poetry activities. I know it is an over-commercialized holiday, but seeing how excited and proud my young students were in having an opportunity to honor their moms, overtakes the canned sentiments. It also gives me pause to reflect on my own good fortune for having such wonderful mother role models throughout my life. The best of all of them is my own mother, who has been my lifelong guide. My mom has lived by the code of strength and conviction, and always with unconditional love. My siblings and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren are darn lucky to have her in our lives.
Now that spring has finally arrived, my husband, Matt, started to get the yard in order. He planted some colorful annuals, repaired a raised bed and started to prep the garden. The boats need to be uncovered soon (that’s right plural boats). At the moment, we have five with tarps covering them.
Matt and I had a wonderful trip to Buffalo last weekend. We visited with our old friend, spent time with college pals, and drove around the revitalized city of Buffalo and our alma maters’ campuses, Buffalo State and the University of Buffalo. Buffalo style chicken wings and beef on weck were superb at the Anchor Bar. Good trip.
Before I sign off, I want to send a big a big shout-out to Eclectic Allie, the drive behind Weekend Coffee Share. These weekly catch-ups prove to be a wonderful way to keep the writing flowing. Thank you, Allie.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mommies.
Have a good day and week ahead, Everyone. Make it GREAT!
Antoinette Truglio Martin is the author of Hug Everyone You Know: A Year of Community, Courage, and Cancer. The memoir is a wimpy patient’s journey through her first year of breast cancer treatment.
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Sounds like you’ll have s great Mother’s Day! Enjoy sailing!
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I feel the same way about commercialized holidays, but then seeing the value it can bring, you kind of have to make the most out of them. Happy Mother’s Day, and have a wonderful weekend!
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Have a wonderful day tomorrow even though you will not have all the children with you.
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Hello Antoinette. You’re too busy to engage in details of teacher to teacher war stories (I was in corp. education for a couple of decades a while back and am in software support now) but the reason I wanted to ping you, was to wish you success with your book about dealing with breast cancer. Suffice to say, this is what I lost my mom to and way too many wonderful women in my life have been impacted by it. All cancers, but breast cancer in particular is something I frequently pray against. My mom, before she passed survived her surgery, radiation and chemo to live long enough to be come an inspiration to other women who were all but lost in that world. Until we have the cure and some kind of prevention, we need more brave women like you – like my mom, to speak with other women who rarely get the kind of factual and emotional support they need from their medical team. Bless you for pursuing this and I wish you all possible success.
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Thank you, Gary, for your kind words. I am so sorry about your wonderful mom. So far, I am doing well and it is because of women like your mom and mine who had gone down the cancer path, endured, and taught. Because of these brave women, I believe a cure is on the horizon, within my lifetime .
Be well.
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Hi Antoinette,
Happy Mother’s Day. I personally believe it’s important to celebrate and honour special days and ignore the commercial overtones. Establish our own traditions at our own budgets and using our own creativity. If it sounds like I’m on a soapbox, it’s because I did get up on my soapbox last night. My family completely by-passed Mother’s Day for me on Sunday. No cards. Flowers. Happy Mother’s Days…nothing. My son had bought me a little yellow plant I am coming to love because it does sort of look like a sunflower but a snail got to it and he got it for $2.50 while we were doing a scout BBQ fundraiser to send our kids to Jamboree. By the time I talked to them last night, I’d come to appreciate that my son and husband had volunteered and cleaned up at the sailing club after it flooded and there’d even been some sewerage through so they really deserved brownie points for that. The three of us were on the BBQ for two hours and then we went to my parents place for dinner. Sunday morning they were on team at Church and left early.However, you can’t give everything to the world and have nothing left for the home front. So, I sat them all down last night and told them about the 3 year old who turned up at the scout flower stall with his Dad and very proudly took the chrysanthemums out to the car himself under his arm, even though they were a third his size. If they could do it, my father could do it. I told them I wanted to be a family of celebrations. My husband really isn’t made like that. I even said that if you don’t know what to do, what to buy, just go with the socially accepted thing. Just buy the chrysanthemums. Buy the anniversary present which correlates with the year. It might not be all that thoughtful of personal but it’s something. For some people, putting themselves in someone else’s shoes is a struggle.
Anyway, welcome to my soapbox. As you can gather from that, we’re a sailing family. My son sails and his father drives him and acts as supports crew, although he recently did get out in the laser and I had a quick paddle in the kayak. So I hope you had ideal conditions for your sail.
Best wishes,
Rowena
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