"A truly determined woman will succeed in doing what society has determined she is incapable of doing."   According to Biography.com tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.   Free online cards: e-cards for Mother's Day Holiday spot also has free ecards, and other free ecards are at Holiday notes where you can customize your own very chic e-card. Customize Free Mother's Day Postcards.   In searching the web I found many sites dedicated to mothers. Whether you stay at home or are a high powered executive jetting around the world you're bound to find some of these very helpful:  Work at Home Mothers  Stay at home Mothers of color  Mothers of asthmatics   Mothers & More is a non-profit organization that cares for the caregiver. Mothers Union:  Christian care for families worldwide.  Mothers of twins  Single Mothers  Single Mothers by choice.  National Association of Mothers   American Mothers   Mother's Home  Mothers 35 and older  Mothers 40 and over  MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving   Mothers with Attitude  Working Mother  Catholic Mothers  Gentle Christian Mothers Mothers Rights  Mom MD: connects mothers with medicine  Google's Mothers Links  Patents by women Empty Nest support for the joys and challenges of this major transition.     Here's a unique gift for the ladies in your life this Mother's Day: Create a personalized Romance Novel - You co-author these 160 to 180-page novels by providing the names, features and places that personalize these books. There are over 25 characteristics to personalize – even include your dog or cat. A personalized front cover adds the finishing touch. Follow your heart – give the gift of romance – a gift that will be treasured forever.  "Words for Mothers to Live By"   A book which mothers would appreciate is Mary Engelbreit's  A wide range of very nice Mother's Day Crafts on HGTV's web site.  Google's exhaustive collection of Mother's Day sites - if you haven't been able to find it elsewhere, it's probably listed here. BlackDog's Mother's Day Celebration Mother's Day on the Net Special things kids can do for Moms. Make her a card, decorate your web pages or desktop, or share a fun book, all at Kids Domain.  At Billy Bear kids can get more gift ideas, play games or send Mom a card. Or, do a crossword puzzle of famous Mothers and Daughters. At On-Line Games for Mother's Day you can play word search, jigsaw and sliding puzzles and more. Mother's Day... Statistics It's More Than the Thought That Counts How Many Mothers 75 million Estimated number of mothers of all ages. (From unpublished data.) 67 Percentage of women in Kentucky, ages 15 to 44, who are mothers. This is among the highest rates in the nation. The national average is 57 percent. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html> 81 Percentage of women 40 to 44 years old who are mothers. In 1980, 90 percent of women in that age group were mothers. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html> How Many Children Only about 11 percent of women end their childbearing years with four or more children, compared with 36 percent in 1976. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-22.html> 2 Average number of children that women today can expect to have in their lifetime. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> 3 Average number of children that women in Utah can expect to have in their lifetime, tops in the nation. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> Cards and Flowers 23,870 Number of florists nationwide. Their 125,116 employees will be especially busy selling bouquets for Mother's Day. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03-58.html> The flowers you buy mom probably were grown in California or Colombia. Among states, California was the leading provider of cut flowers in 2001, alone accounting for more than two-thirds of the nation's total domestic production ($292 million out of $424 million). Meanwhile, the value of U.S. imports of cut flowers from Colombia, the leading foreign supplier to the United States, during 2002 was $289 million. <http://www.usda.gov/nass/> <http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/> The value of shipments of Mother's Day cards by greeting card publishers totaled $147.9 million in 1992, up from $80.2 million in 1987. http://www.census.gov/prod/1/manmin/92mmi/92manuff.html New Moms 4.0 million Number of women who have babies each year. Of this number, about 450,000 are teens, and almost 100,000 are age 40 or over. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> Overall, 14 percent (504,000) of all births in the United States in 1995 were to foreign-born women; 43 percent of these 504,000 births were to women born in Mexico. 24.8 Median age of women when they give birth for the first time - meaning one-half are above this age and one-half are below. The median age has risen nearly three years since 1970. Still, the median age of women who gave birth in 1993 was 26.4 years; those giving birth for the first time were 23.8 years. These median ages were 1.0 and 1.7 years older respectively than they were 20 years earlier. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> 40 Percentage of births taking place annually that are the mothers' first. Another 33 percent are the second; 17 percent, the third; and 11 percent, the fourth or more. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> 36,000 Number of births each year attended by physicians, midwives or others that did not occur in hospitals. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> 1-in-33 The odds of a woman delivering twins. Her odds of having triplets or other multiple births was approximately 1-in-539. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> August  The most popular month in which to have a baby, with more than 360,000 births taking place that month in 2001. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> Tuesday  The most popular day of the week in which to have a baby, with an average of more than 12,000 births taking place on Tuesdays during 2001. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf> Working Moms 55 Percentage of mothers in the labor force with infant children, down from a record 59 percent in 1998. This marks the first significant decline in this rate since the Census Bureau began collecting the data in 1976. In that year, 31 percent of these mothers were in the labor force. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html> Among mothers between 15 and 44 who do not have infants, 74 percent are in the labor force. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html> To help juggle motherhood and careers, many mothers turn to one of the more than 67,000 day-care centers across the country. Among more than 10 million preschoolers, about 2 million were primarily cared for in such a facility during the bulk of the mothers' working hours. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03-58.html> <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/child/ppl-168.html> Single Moms 10 million The number of single mothers living with children under 18, up from 3 million in 1970. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html> Source: US Census Bureau     ~ Recipes for Mother's Day ~ Our Cyber Kitchen for recipes and links for all kinds of foods In Mama's Kitchen: Home cooking and heirloom recipes. Cherry Coffee Cake Coffee Cake Ingredients:  1 cup sugar  1/2 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened*  1 cup LAND O LAKES® Sour Cream  2 eggs  1 teaspoon vanilla  2 cups all-purpose flour  1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder  1/2 teaspoon baking soda  1/2 teaspoon salt  1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling** Topping Ingredients:  1/4 cup all-purpose flour  1/4 cup sugar  1/4 cup chopped pecans  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon  3 tablespoons LAND O LAKES® Butter* Directions: Heat oven to 325°F. Combine 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add sour cream, eggs and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat until well mixed. Spread half of batter into greased and floured 13x9-inch baking pan. Spoon cherry pie filling over batter. Spoon remaining batter over pie filling; spread carefully. Stir together 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, pecans and cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in 3 tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle crumb mixture over batter. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and topping is dark golden brown. *Substitute LAND O LAKES® Soft Baking Butter with Canola Oil right from the refrigerator. **Substitute 1 (21-ounce) can your favorite flavor pie filling. Yield: 15 servings Tomatoes, Chicken and Avocado Pasta 1  can (14-1/2 ounces)  Hunt's® Diced Tomatoes with Balsamic Vinegar, Basil and Olive Oil 2  cups  shredded cooked chicken 1  medium avocado, peeled and diced 2  green onions, sliced 8  ounces  uncooked bow-tie pasta 2  tablespoons  finely chopped walnuts, (optional)   Directions: Combine tomatoes, chicken, avocado and onions in a medium saucepan; simmer 10 minutes.  Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Do not rinse.  Combine hot pasta and tomato mixture in a large serving dish; toss to coat well. Sprinkle with walnuts, if desired. Makes: 4 servings    Marinated Flank Steak 1/2 cup Mazola® canola oil 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons chopped onion 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 (1 1/2 pound) beef flank steak Directions: In shallow baking dish combine corn oil, vinegar, soy sauce, onion, garlic and ginger. Add steak, turning to coat. Cover; refrigerate, turning occasionally, several hours or overnight. Remove steak from marinade. Grill or broil 6 inches from heat, turning once, 8 minutes for medium rare or until desired doneness. Thinly slice diagonally across the grain. Yield:  6 servings Roasted Veggie Wrap 1 cups each thinly sliced zucchini, carrot, mushrooms and red pepper 1 Tbsp Mazola® Oil 1/4 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Mayonnaise 3 cups fresh spinach leaves 1 small clove garlic 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese 4 fajita-size flour or spinach tortillas Directions: On large baking sheet toss vegetables with oil.  Bake in preheated 450° F oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until vegetables are just tender. In food processor, blend mayonnaise, spinach, garlic and Parmesan cheese until smooth.  Spread each tortilla with 2 Tbsp spinach mixture; top each with 1/4 of the vegetables; roll up. Yield:  4 servings Rocky Road Toffee Crisps  Chocolate graham crackers are the crust for these quick and easy rich candy-like bar. 24 chocolate (2 1/2-inch) graham cracker squares 1/2 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, melted* 1 (12-ounce) package (2 cups) semi-sweet real chocolate chips  1 cup white baking chips 1 cup English toffee chips 2 cups miniature marshmallows  Directions: Heat oven to 350°F. Line 15x10x1-inch jelly-roll pan with graham crackers so sides touch. Pour melted butter evenly over crackers; sprinkle with 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and white baking chips. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until butter is absorbed. Spread melted chips over graham crackers; sprinkle with toffee chips and marshmallows. Continue baking for 3 minutes or until marshmallows begin to soften.  Meanwhile, place remaining chocolate chips in small resealable plastic food bag. Microwave on MEDIUM until chips are melted (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes). Snip small hole in one corner of bag. Drizzle chocolate over bars. Cool completely. Cut into bars. *Substitute LAND O LAKES® Soft Baking Butter with Canola Oil.  Yield: 48 bars    However you spend Mother's Day, make it a day you'll remember fondly even if you are alone or your family is far away. Joanne  For information on buying or selling east bay homes, please contact me at 510-429-4800 or send me a note on the  form. Thank you, Joanne P.S.  Be sure to add us to your favorite places. ~ Joanne L. Gardiner, Broker, e-PRO Realtor Advantage Realty Advantage Mortgage Associates 3205 Whipple Road - Union City, California 94587 (510) 429-4800 San Francisco Bay Area  ~ San Francisco East Bay Real Estate web site: http://www.joannegardiner.com   Our primary realty service areas in the San Francisco Bay Area: Hayward, Castro Valley, Fremont, Newark, Niles, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, San Ramon, Sunol, Oakland, Foster City, Burlingame, and San Mateo. The types of real estate in which we specialize are:  single family homes, detached homes, attached homes, duets, condominiums, townhomes, garden homes, PUDs, manufactured homes, mobile homes,  income property, investment property, tri-plexes, four-plexes, apartment property, and special use properties such as churches for sale.

Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870 The following is contributed by Ms. Barbara Jones. In this country Mother's Day started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870, followed by a bit of history (or should I say "herstory." Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears! Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God. In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace. Julia Ward Howe Boston - 1870   What the Bible says about Mothers Gen 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. Exo 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Lev 19:3 "'Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God. Deu 5:16 "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 2 Ki 4:30 But the child's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her. Prov 10:1 The proverbs of Solomon: A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother. Isa 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem." Ezek 16:44 "'Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: "Like mother, like daughter." Luke 1:43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Luke 2:51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. John 19:26-27 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.     Photo: Laine as Maria Portokalos One of the most entertaining  mothers on the big screen in recent years was Maria Portokalos in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding  wonderfully portrayed by Laine Kazan. And, if you haven't seen her in the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," do so, indeed. You'll laugh til your side aches! She is terrific and hilariously! Just for fun take a look at some of the sayings by mother's of the famous, like this one by Columbus' Mother: "I don't care what you've discouvered, Christopher. You still could have written!"   Erma Bombeck IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER  by Erma Bombeck I would have talked less and listened more. I would have invited friends over to dinner, even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded. I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light  a fire in the fireplace. I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth. I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed. I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage. I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains. I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life. I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband. I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day. I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime. Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was  my only  chance in life to assist God in a miracle. When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later.  Now go get washed up for dinner." There would have been more "I love yous"..  more "I'm sorrys"... but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute ... look at it and really see it ... Live it ... and never give it back. Don't forget to stop and smell the roses today!  Take time to tell a loved one how much you love them, do something nice for yourself, and  stop to give God thanks for all of it. "I love my mother for all the times she said absolutely nothing." -- Erma Bombeck More of Erma Bombeck on Mothers Day  ~~~ Erma Louise Bombeck was born February 21, 1927 and died April 22, 1996). Born Erma Fiste, she was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for a newspaper column that depicted suburban home life in the second half of the 20th century. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Bombeck graduated from the University of Dayton in 1949 with a degree in English. She started her career in 1949 as a reporter for the Dayton Journal Herald, but after marrying school administrator Bill Bombeck, a college friend, she left the job and raised three children. As the children grew she started writing At Wit's End, telling self-deprecating tales about the life of a housewife. It debuted in the Kettering-Oakwood Times in 1964. She was paid $3 per column. Growing popularity led At Wit's End to be nationally syndicated in 1965, and eventually it ran twice a week in more than 700 newspapers. The column was collected in many best-selling books, and her fame was such that a television sitcom was based on her. The series, Maggie, ran for eight shows in 1982 before being cancelled. In 1971, the Bombecks moved to Paradise Valley, Arizona. Bombeck suffered from polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary disorder that causes cysts to form on the kidneys. In 1996 worsening health forced her to have a kidney transplant, and she died of complications that year. She is interred in the Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.   The Meanings of Carnations Carnations have always been a popular flower choice. Not only are they a fairly inexpensive flower, they also have a wonderfully sweet fragrance and are long-lasting. Below are the different meanings of carnations based on their colors and other characteristics. Carnation (General) - fascination, woman's love Pink Carnation - I'll never forget you, woman's love, always on my mind Red Carnation - my heart aches for you, passion Purple Carnation - capriciousness Solid Color Carnation - yes Striped Carnation - refusal White Carnation - innocence, pure love Yellow Carnation - you disappoint me, rejection, disdain     "M" is for the million things she gave me, "O" means only that she's growing old, "T" is for the tears she shed to save me, "H" is for her heart of purest gold; "E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining, "R" means right, and right she'll always be . . . Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER," A word that means the world to me. -- Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

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