Happy Mother’s Day

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“God knows that a mother needs fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul. But because I happen to be a parent of almost fiercely maternal nature, I praise casualness. It seems to me the rarest of virtues. It is useful enough when children are small. It is useful to the point of necessity when they are adolescents.”

— Phyllis McGinley

Mothersday

70 thoughts on “Happy Mother’s Day”

  2. May all mom’s enjoy harmony, civility and the beverage of their choice lovingly prepared by adoring hands. However… as the mother of a teenager I settle for a non-hostile response to “Good Morning”.

  4. Happy Mother’s Day, Stephanie! There are many times that I look at my kids and think “how on earth is that *I’m* the mom!” It’s a wild ride, for sure!

  8. As the mother of 2 teenage girls and an 11 year old son, “casualness” has become my middle name….even when part of me screams for order, my family is much happier with “casualness”… unless I hear, “Mom, I needed to be there 5 minutes ago…”
    Happy Mother’s Day, Stephanie, and thanks for making me laugh.
    Lisathemom

  9. Happy Mother’s Day to you Stephanie and to all of us who can marvel at the fact that we are, indeed, Mothers. On most days, the supreme blessing.

  14. Happy Mother’s Day. I’m still trying to work out a deal in which my children will never age beyond 10. I haven’t really come up with anything yet.

  16. Hooray for all of us attempting to survive our children’s childhood!

  18. Another pearl of wisdom! My 5 and 12 year olds banged on our door at 6:45 this morning – let us in! And served me soggy cereal, overly sweetened coffee and a yogurt! And a song and lots of kisses! And now I’m alone and knitting! Good family!
    Hope your Mother’s Day is sweet!

  20. Happy Mother’s Day, Steph! And likewise to all the moms reading this, including the waterlogged New England ones.

  21. Happy Mother’s Day to all moms! May you have peaceful, uninterrupted knitting time today.

  22. Mrs. McPhee? Happy Mother’s Day!
    Thanks for giving the world your Stephanie.
    Despite this knitting humour thing, she’s turned out quite well.
    Nicely done.

  25. As the mother who just travedled 100 miles of highway in the navigator’s seat (during repair season) with her pre-driver’s test son, I’m all in favor of casualness! Happy Mother’s Day.

  28. i strive for casual, but usually achieve something closer to neurotic hover-mother status. isn’t it wonderful, though? i love my four little monsters.

  31. Happy Mother’s Day! I am enjoying mine by reading your books “Knitting Rules” and “At Knits End” that I recieved for Mom’s Day today. Thanks so much for making me laugh.

  34. Happy Mother’s Day! My husband and I attended an art festival yesterday, and he bought me two nice prints. And my daughter got me sock yarn. What more could a mother want? And yes, I agree with casual. It’s way better than yelling at everyone to clean up all the time.’Cause that would include me, and cleaning would eat into my precious knitting and painting time. As long as there are some clean dishes, and we can actually walk across rooms and sit on the furniture, that’s all that matters.

  35. I hope your Mother’s Day was a happy one. I’ve had quite a day of joy, but now it’s time to go finish my ark. Six days of rain in New England so far, and they predicting another eight. Glad I’ve got yarn…

  39. Did they supply you with that cup of coffee as well as the card? They are great young women!!
    Happy Mothers Day!

  40. great quote.
    one thing i’m learning about being a mother to a young boyis that he will grow dispite of my mothering skills, so rather than obsess over behaviors, growth patterns… (when people discuss where their child is in percentiles – what does that mean?)
    i believe my job is to cushion the bumps and blows and read to him. of course i do also comply to normal youngun raring techniques!

  43. Happy Mother’s Day! Oh, and I thought you might want to know (if you didn’t already) that you’re famous enough to be mentioned on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_knitting
    Scroll down to the bottom. If it were me, I’d use the fame as an excuse to enhance the stash — you have to keep up appearances, after all! 🙂

  44. Happy Mothers Day Stephanie!
    Hope you had as good a day as I.
    I got to sleep in, sew, knit, my husband cooked dinner, my 20 year old daughter told me she considers me to be her best friend and my 14 year old son remembered it was mothers day! Life is good.

  45. Happy Mother’s Day! I have to say, as much as I love the knitting stuff, it’s stuff on motherhood and life in general that you put out there that really moves me. I’ve added ‘casualness’ to the mental list of things to remember when/if I have kids.

  47. Ah, so it’s May 14th in Canada too… (I’m never sure if different countries have different dates for these celebrations.) My 2yr old proclaimed as she ran into my room first thing, ‘It’s mumma’s day and Dadda’s taking me to the shops to get you flowers and a cupcake and an apple because it’s your birthday!” And off she ran to do just that – gifts of her choice – for some celebration that she couldn’t quite name, but wanted to share.
    (When I was a kid I never believed when mum or dad told me it was the home made gifts or the thoughtful gestures that mattered the most. Boy, I know it now.)
    That’s a beautiful card your girls made. And here, here to casualness.
    Happy Harlotty Mothers’ Day.

  49. Dear Stephanie:
    First, Happy Mother’s Day to You, and thanks for the great quote. I know the perfect person to pass that onto. Second, for mother’s day my lovely daughter gave me your latest book “Knitting Rules!”. She knows her mother so well. Since I haven’t yet learned how to do sustained reading while I knit(I’m open to suggestions on that one), I immediately took your book with me to a very hot relaxing bath and proceeded to have a great Mother’s Day alternating between knitting, reading your book, and doing nothing at all. Well, I did get a couple loads of laundry in and fix dinner.
    Anyway, thanks once again for a fabulous book and I hope one day you’ll be in the Wash, DC area and I can meet you in person and get both my books signed by you.

  52. (Belated) Happy Mother’s Day, Stephanie! I’m another who loves the quote. Would’ve fit my Mom perfectly, and she was the greatest. Thought I’d share my favorite quote ever about Mom – from my older brother, as he was leading a troupe of high-school boys into the house for a visit:
    “Come on in, guys. The place is a mess, but we live here!”
    Now, *that’s* a tribute. 😉 Hope you had a lovely day!

  53. Here’s to moms-what would we do without them?
    Here, here to casualness-the only way I make it through my day.
    Happy Mother’s Day Steph!

  54. I got to spend the day with my Mom and my son. We planted his garden with the seeds he chose. Pretty much perfect.

  55. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone even though it’s a day late. Yesterday I was with my daughter (34 and married). We always spend Mother’s Day together at Disneyland, plus making the 2 hour drive each way. We spent the day shopping, eating and riding a few rides while my husband took his mother out to lunch and her husband studied for finals. My son lives out of state but called just as I got home. This will have to change, of course, if she has children of her own.
    Someone mentioned trying to figure out how to keep her children forever no older then 10. Although that does have it’s charms, there’s nothing like having grown children, especially a daughter, who shares your interests, and wants to meet you for lunch and spend time with you on her day off. And all of this comes with no longer being responsible for everything they do!
    You still care and are emotionally supportive but you’re more of a friend rather than always being ‘mommy’. This has charms too.

  57. I would place a high premium on casualness, too. Well said.
    And we (heart) you too, Stephanie.
    Happy Mother’s Day!

  59. And a Happy Mother’s Day to you too! I spent mine visiting with my Mom, knitting, and enjoying a really good meal prepared by DH. DD managed to be asleep when it came time to fix dinner :). That’s OK with me, as she just finished final exams week. The other good bit was that she said that I grill a better steak than DH.
    Am I the only one who noticed that the “ladies” color-coordinated their card with your current project?

  61. Love the quote. I didn’t know anyone but me even knew of Phyllis McGinley’s existence anymore. Happy Mothers’ Day! I have four kids–one daughter (who is 20 and learning to knit) and three boys (one of whom–the four-year-old–has expressed any interest in learning to knit).

  62. What a lovely quote… when my kids asked me what I wanted for Mother’s Day, I said “To sleep in and wake up in a clean house.” I got an Ott light… casualness works:-)

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