SUPER MOM

I know, I know…. you all think YOUR Mom is The Super Mom, and that’s as it should be.  But what can I say?  I actually had a Super Duper Mom, and how many of you can say YOUR Mom was mom to over 100 children? Mine was.

When I was a child, my Mom was the Neighbourhood organizer at all birthday parties and events where children were gathered.  These events were always successes because my Mom knew How to Organize Children.  It was built into her gene structure.  Children automatically obeyed her, but adored her while they were doing so.  She was a female Pied Piper when leading children into the ways they should go – willingly.

I always wondered why my friends would do absolutely anything my mother wanted them to do, and so willingly – because I had a genetic disposition to resist authority wherever possible, and was not always in step with the marching crowd surrounding my Mom.  My Auntie, sister to my Mom, gave me some insight into the secret of Mom’s success, which apparently began when Mom was a child herself.

When in a junior grade, Mom wrote an essay on what she wanted to be when she grew up, the gist of it being that she wanted to have 100 children, with no fathers around to get in the way.  My mother had a good command of words, and her essay was apparently superb, received excellent marks – but wasn’t posted on the bulletin board for Parent’s Night perusal, because of the “no fathers” stipulation, I assume.  Still, it caused a lifetime directional change.

She always wanted to be a mother, and didn’t waver from her motherly disposition  her whole life.  But I only had three siblings, and that left her about 96 short of her ultimate goal.  Being the Super Mom that she was, there had to be a solution to her problem – and she found it.

She began fostering children from The Children’s Aid Society.  At first they arrived one at a time – adorable little babies who would be part of our family for weeks or months, and then they would be adopted out to a deserving family, and Mom would make a place for a new arrival.  It became apparent that not only did my Super Mom want to care for these children as though they were her own, (which I suppose they always were, to her), but she wanted even more of a challenge. She became known as a Foster Mom who was especially capable of caring for children that were not easy to care for, mentally or physically, and her role changed.  Not only did she become Mom to children with problems, she sometimes had more than one at a time to be cared for.  She handled them with her almost magical hands and mind, so that they joined her ever-increasing army of Super Mom Adorers.  Unadoptable children became adoptable.  Unhappy, angry children became sweetly agreeable.  Stubborn children became pleasantly passive.  It was as if they were all brushed with Super Mom Fairy Dust.

Year after year went by, and even though Super Mom moved to another city, special arrangements were made for one of the children to go with her into another county (they changed the legal procedure), because no one else could get through to that child.  Through her patience and understanding, that little girl, who had been with Mom for four years, since she was two, and who had been written off as “mentally challenged” not only was adopted into a great family, but became valedictorian of her graduating class.  Because my Super Mom’s role also contained a Super Educator Hat as well.

My Dad was working long hours and many times on the road, so Mom had free reign over the daily routine of bringing up children.  At one time, my husband and child and I spent a few months living with Mom and Dad while settling into a new life, and my child became part of Super Mom’s Army (where she remained steadfastly throughout the years).  At the same time, one of my brothers had a temporary job loss so he and his family, wife and three children, also joined the retinue for several months. Mom just rolled up her sleeves and added three more adoring children into the crowd. Her gang at that time consisted of two 14-month old identical twin boys, one with a severe asthmatic condition, and a three-month old little girl, as well as the six-year-old girl who had followed her to their new home.  8 in all, as I recall, plus giving day-care to a little boy of 3 whose parents both worked.  And through it all, Super Mom’s household was neat as a pin and clean, with meals served on time, and every hour of the day organized and correct. How she managed to do all this caring and still have time to read stories, help with homework, and change a tire on the car is beyond me!

Every summer, Super Mom became Super Grand Mom too, as the grandchildren eagerly applied to be summer guests at her house.  Where better to spend their vacation than with their best-friend imaginative mentor, who opened up new worlds of what-ifs and I-cans?

There came a time, when my Dad was ready to retire, that he cautiously mentioned that it might be nice for him to have Super Mom all to himself.  After all, he reasoned, her dream had been fulfilled.  At that point she had tended to well over a hundred children, all successfully placed into adoptive homes, or back into their natural homes, and there hadn’t been one father there to bother Mom with their upbringing and care.

It must have been hard for Super Mom to take voluntary retirement, but she finally agreed that it might be nice to spend time with her childhood sweetheart, take trips with him and get into gardening and other interests they shared.  But there was a stipulation, of course, that home would always be the place where neighbourhood children and her own grandchildren could gather.  As often as possible, of course.  And they did, of course.  My Super Mom.

INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL ART

In my Artist’s Section this post, I want to show you the wonderful work of a special artist named Sherry Anne Albi, who lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

About Sherry……

Sherry was brought up in a small town in Northern Ontario, with her parents, her grandmother, and five siblings.  The long winters gave her time to learn skills from her grandmothers and mother, which she uses today — knitting, crocheting, sewing, painting, drawing.  Her father was a renowned artist who painted with passion until the day he passed away.  Her mother is also a painter, and continues to paint in her senior years.  Sherry developed her own creative passion for lifelike baby dolls, and her art is centred in her “Forever Wee Ones.”

These babies are NOT recommended for children – the life-like babies are family treasures to be handed down from one generation to the next.

Babies are painted with durable, non-fading paint, which never rubs off.  Skin tones are realistic, like a new-born baby.  She uses a matte finish.  sherry uses mohair, resembling the fine hair of a baby, with hair being rooted one hair at a time, using the smallest needle available on the market.

The eyes are blue-grey or a rich brown, for opened-eyed babies.

Sherry makes all the bodies herself, with double-stitched seams, and doe-suede for the bodies.

Babies are weighted with the tiniest of glass beads, so amall you won’t feel them, only the weight, and babies are weighed realistically to their size and age.

No babies are under 5.5 lbs.  The body is signed and dated by Sherry (on their little tushy).

Supplied with the baby – an outfit, undershirt with matching bib, hat and scratch mittens, socks, diaper, knitted or crocheted outfit (sweater, booties, bonnet) a blanket, pajamas for night time, and a birth certificate with baby’s picture on it is supplied.

Some of Sherry’s babies have achieved stardom.  Henry has done a commercial for a well-known department store (and he is still available for adoption.)  Kyle just finished a photo shoot for a major television network, and many of her babies have been shown in articles in Discover dolls magazine, and The Toronto Star, etc.

Babies shown above are samples of some “adopted” babies.  Here’s a little guy who is waiting to be adopted….

Want to see more? Here’s the link to Sherry’s website: Forever Wee Ones

‘Nuff said.

 

 

“When God Created Mothers”

by Erma Bombeck

When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of “overtime” when the angel appeared and said. “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”

And God said, “Have you read the specs on this order? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts…all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands.”

The angel shook her head slowly and said. “Six pairs of hands…. no way.”

“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” God remarked, “it’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”

“That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel. God nodded.

“One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. ‘I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”

“God,” said the angel touching his sleeve gently, “Get some rest tomorrow….”

“I can’t,” said God, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick…can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger…and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower.”

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.

“But tough!” said God excitedly. “You can imagine what this mother can do or endure.”

“Can it think?”

“Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.

“There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model.”

“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord, “It’s a tear.”

“What’s it for?”

“It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.”

“You are a genius,” said the angel.

Somberly, God said, “I didn’t put it there.”

 

What Others Say About Moms

–  There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child – and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own.  (Robert Brault)
–  A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.  (Tenneva Jordan)
–  All mothers are working mothers.  (unknown)
–  The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  (Rajneesh)
–  Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.  (Pearl S Buck)
–  Sweater: n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.  (Ambrose Bierce)
–  The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.  (Honoré de Balzac)
–  If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?  (Milton Berle)
–  Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. (Marion C. Garretty)
–  Mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.  (Emily Dickinson)
–  A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us;  when adversity takes the place of prosperity;  when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us;  when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hears.  (Washington Irving)
–  Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.  (Lisa Alther)
–  That best academy, a mother’s knee.  (James Russell Lowell)
–  A mom’s hug lasts long after she lets go.  (unknown)
–  You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool mom.  (unknown)
–  Mother’s love grows by giving.  (Charles Lamb)
–  All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.   (Abraham Lincoln)
–  God could not be everywhere, so He created mothers.  (Jewish Proverb)
–  The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. (W R Wallace)

 

 

Mother, My Friend

When I have troubles
that come to my door,
I count all my blessings,
for they are much more.

And the best blessing
that I hold on to,
My mother, my friend,
I always have you.

© E Joyce Finn/Collie

Mom

A drop of rain,
another,
many, many more.

A rill,
a brook,
a stream,
a rushing torrent,
a mighty river!

Lakes!

Oceans!

O !  Feel how much I love you  !

© E Joyce Finn/Collie

My daughter has chosen a few songs as tributes to her Mom (that would be me), her Grandmothers and to all Mothers out there. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Connie Francis – “Mama”

Connie Francis (born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, December 12, 1938in Newark, New Jersey,) is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the late-1950s and early-1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw. Despite several severe interruptions in her career, she is still active as a recording and performing artist. Following an idea of her father, Francis traveled to London in August 1959 to record an Italian album at EMI’s famous Abbey Road Studios, entitled Connie Francis sings Italian Favorites. The album was released in November 1959. Soon after it entered the album charts where it remained for 81 weeks, peaking at # 4. It remains to this day Francis’ most successful album release. The subsequent single culled from this album, “Mama”, reached # 8 in the United States and # 2 in the United Kingdom. (Wikipedia)

1959 – Reminisce with this black and white TV performance by Connie Francis singing “Mama”, in both Italian and English –  (from John1948ThreeB1a on YouTube)

 

Celine Dion – “A Mother’s Prayer”

Céline Dion, CC OQ ChLD (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record. In 1990, she released the English-language album Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world. Dion’s music has been influenced by genres ranging from rock and R&B to gospel and classical. Her recordings are mainly in French and English, although she also sings in Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Dion has won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for Falling Into You and Record of the Year for “My Heart Will Go On”. She is the second best-selling female artist in the US during the Nielsen SoundScan era, with her albums Falling Into You and Let’s Talk About Love both certified Diamond in the US, and is the only female artist to have two singles sell more than a million copies in the UK. In addition, her 1995 album D’eux, is the best-selling French-language album of all time.In 2004, after surpassing 175 million in album sales worldwide, she was presented with the Chopard Diamond Award at the World Music Awards for becoming the best-selling female artist of all time. Dion remains the best-selling Canadian artist of all time with record sales of more than 200 million copies worldwide. (Wikipedia)

2004 – Celine Dion performs “A Mother’s Prayer” live on Oprah’s show, accompanied on piano by Canada’s own David Foster – (from CelineDionGreece on YouTube)

 

Carrie Underwood – “Mama’s Song”

Carrie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and actress, described by music critics as Country Music’s reigning Queen. She rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol in 2005. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist. She is a winner of six Grammy Awards, sixteen Billboard Music Awards, seven American Music Awards, and eleven Academy of Country Music Awards. As a songwriter, she has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Underwood is also a two-time winner of the Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year award and the first woman to win such an award twice (2009/10). Underwood was inducted into and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2009. (Wikipedia)

2010 – Here is Carrie’s lovely video of  “Mama’s Song” – (from carrieunderwoodVEVO on YouTube)

 

Il Divo – “Mama”

Il Divo is an English multinational operatic pop vocal group created by music manager Simon Cowell. Formed in the United Kingdom, they are signed to Cowell’s record label, Syco Music. Il Divo is a group of four male singers: French pop singer Sébastien Izambard, Spanish baritone Carlos Marín, American tenor David Miller, and Swiss tenor Urs Bühler. To date, they have sold more than 26 million albums worldwide. Il Divo sings in Spanish, English, Italian, French and Latin. (wikipedia). Il Divo put a fresh face on popular songs, utilizing their exceptional voices, good looks, and cultural diversity to bring their romantic blend of classical and pop music to audiences around the world. (James C. Monger – Rovi)

2011 – Please watch this wonderful live performance of Il Divo singing “Mama” –  (from GreatLiveMusicals on YouTube)

 Leah West – “Guardian Angel”

Leah West is Canada’s newest Indie-Pop Sensation. Leah West is the winner of the 2011 BCIMA “People’s Choice Award” and she was also nominated for 3 other awards, including “Songwriter of the Year” “Single of the Year” and “Pop/Contemporary Recording of the Year”. Leah’s songs are currently playing on both major and indie radio. Leah West is a Canadian-American Singer-Songwriter who grew up in New Jersey, near New York City. “It is a huge melting pot of culture and it was a great place to grow up and be surrounded by fabulous music and entertainment from all over the world.” Leah moved to Kelowna, BC, Canada in 2005 to immerse herself in the vibrant Canadian music scene. She travels extensively, but calls Kelowna, BC, Canada home.(Sonicbids)

2012 – This is Leah West’s ode to Mothers everywhere “Guardian Angel” – (from Ken Herft Jr on YouTube)

 

The Mamas and the Papas

Although this group doesn’t fit into a category of “songs for Mothers”,  their band title certainly is appropriate. The song I’ve picked could very easily be “dedicated” to Mom as well…

The Mamas and The Papas were an American folk rock vocal group that recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968, reuniting briefly in 1971. They released five studio albums and seventeen singles, six of which made the top ten, and sold close to 40 million records worldwide. The group comprised John Phillips (1935–2001), Canadian Denny Doherty (1940–2007), Cass Elliot (1941–1974), and Michelle Phillips née Gilliam (b. 1944). Their sound was based on vocal harmonies arranged by John Phillips, the songwriter, musician, and leader of the group who adapted folk to the new beat style of the early sixties. (Wikipedia). The leading California-based vocal group of the ’60s, the Mamas & the Papas epitomized the ethos of the mid- to late-’60s pop culture: live free, play free, and love free. Their music, built around radiant harmonies and a solid electric folk foundation, was gorgeous on its own terms, but a major part of its appeal lay in the easygoing southern California lifestyle it endorsed. The group’s success was as extraordinary as it was brief. (Bruce Eder-AllMusic)

1967 – Here is a video of “Dedicated To The One I Love” with snapshots of The Mamas and The Papas – (from msknowitall96 on YouTube)

 

We humans aren’t the only ones who love our families. Please sit back and enjoy “A Mother’s Love”. It’s a very sweet and touching video of animal mothers and their offspring – (from Jeannetter K on YouTube)

 

FINAL NOTE:  – Working on “The Beaches”…… coming soon.

‘Ta-ta for now”….. EJ.