As Mother’s Day is just a few days away, I thought it might be helpful for me to share this “Interactive Quote Finder” for just the occasion.
It helps to add a thoughtful note to handmade gifts for mom.
This quote finder features 80 famous quotes with helpful filters, like funny or inspiring, as well as who is sending/receiving, like “from son” or “to sister”.
Here’s the link: ProFlowers.com Mother’sDay Quote Finder
May 11, 2014 at 10:11 pm , by Nick Shell
3 years, 5 months.
Dear Jack,
I decided that this year for Mother’s Day, I wanted you to pick out everything for Mommy yourself.
That’s right, I would simply be your accomplice as I snuck you out of school during your Friday afternoon nap and wisked you away to Hallmark and Whole Foods.
Honestly, you did a great job of picking Mommy’s gifts:
A pretty new summer scarf and Winnie the Pooh card from Hallmark, along with Mommy’s favorite kind of licorice and some pink lilies from Whole Foods.
I had been preparing you all week:
“Okay Jack, you and me are going to get Mommy some gifts for Mother’s Day, but it’s our little secret until Sunday.”
And I purposely waited until Friday for our dadventure to take care of these gifts, should it be too much temptation for you to spill the beans to Mommy.
But as soon as we stepped into the house on Friday, two days before Mother’s Day, you invited Mommy to the trunk of our car where we had her gifts stored.
Granted, you were already presenting Mommy with her flowers two days early, but that was supposed to be the only thing you gave her before Mother’s Day.
Mommy and I both attempted to explain to you that those gifts were meant to be a surprise.
But after about 7 minutes of you crying and screaming in the hallway, you finally blurted out, “It’s a scarf!”
At that point, I gave up and Mommy got to celebrate Mother’s Day early, by receiving her scarf.
Well, at least we made her wait for the candy and card.
From here on out, I plan repeat this same formula each year: Secretly take you away to pick out Mommy’s gifts for Mother’s Day.
I’ll be interested in learning which year your gifts actually get to remain a surprise!
It was just a tiny little Mother’s Day mishap this year, that’s all.
She still had a wonderful time with you and me today. Actually, she thought the scarf incident was pretty funny.
As for me, the “it’s a scarf!” part will probably be what I remember most about Mother’s Day 2014, years from now.
It’s pretty hilarious, actually.
Love,
Daddy
May 14, 2012 at 9:11 pm , by Nick Shell
17 months.
Earlier last week I heard Jaci Valasquez say on her morning radio show on The Fish that what she wished for most on Mother’s Day was to take it easy while she and her husband watched their kids play.
I figured that sounded like a pretty good idea. So sure enough, I made sure we had thelaziest Mother’s Day ever at our house.
There’s something anyway about waking up wearing a Smurfs t-shirt that says “Spaced Out” on it that leads to not taking to a shower, which somehow leads to us not leaving for church on time.
We were so slothful we not only were too late for the 9:30 and 11:00 services, but we barely made it on time for the 11:11 service.
It’s evidently designed for anyone who is justlate enough that they need to watch the 11:00 service on an 11 minute delay on a giant movie screen in the big slacker room down the hall while coffee is being served.
That would be us: the slackers.
Not normally, though. Usually we’re okay to confirm to the strict and necessary weekend schedule it takes to socialize, buy groceries and run errands, go to church, and still clean the house, all with a toddler in tow, while living in a big enough town like Nashville.
But not this Mother’s Day. We chose to be as deliberately unmotivated as we could: Starbucks Frappucinos for brunch (where we pushed Jack around in one of their R2D2-looking kid stroller seats) and then had leftover pasta back at the house for a 3:00 lunch.
Jack took a 2 hour grace nap which led to us catching up on some Netlix. (We’re too cheap to ever pay for cable or satellite.)
“Hey, they have the show I Shouldn’t Be Alivenow on the instant streaming…”.
Forty-three minutes later:
“That episode reminded me a lot of Lost. Umm… you want to watch Lost now?”
It was pushing Jack’s dinner time and we still had the house to clean.
In the likeness of one of those fast-forward montages in an Eighties sitcom where the characters clean up the mess real quick thanks to speed-dubbing, while zany music plays, Jill managed to get our place feng shui enough to feel comfortable while I entertained/annoyed Jack. (Pictured right.)
I took all the pillows from our couch and made a giant mountain that kept enclosing Jack as soon as he climbed to the top of it. Next I let him continually walk across our unnecessarily long couch until he got beyond giddy and delirious.
Then he discovered some forgotten (and dreadfully stale) fruit snacks in a travel-size container in the closet. I liked them better than he did.
At some point, Jack and I gave Jill her Mother’s Day care package which consisted of a card from Jack, a box of black licorice that were shaped like little hearts, and a gift certificate for a pedicure.
For us, it was a very lazy Sunday and what I have written is all I remember of it. But I already know Jill will look back on it as a good Mother’s Day; one worth repeating.
The moral of this story is to be lazy and then good things will happen.
May 10, 2012 at 10:41 pm , by Nick Shell
17 months.
A month ago I revealed thatHP would be giving one lucky mom a full “tech-over” for Mother’s Day. I invited everyone to submit a mom for the contest, telling why she should win this glorious prize package.
Today, I shall announce the lucky mom out there who will definitely have an awesome Mother’s Day gift. Drum roll please.
And the winner is…
My wife. I, I mean, she really needs a new computer and she’s such a good sport about me writing about her all the time…
Angry yet? You shouldn’t be. You should know me well enough by now I’m just joking. Gotcha! (I hope.)
Seriously, here’s the actual winning entry:
Hi Nick & Parents.com,
I am not sure if voting oneself to win is acceptable, but I truly have to give myself credit as being a super MOM! I have two beautiful daughters that I have raised, one is 8 yrs. and the other is 7 yrs., on my own. I have been known to have three jobs and attend college full time, and wonder when i would get to just spend a relaxing afternoon with my daughters. But now I have a debilitating head condition that has caused me to not be able to hold down not even one full time job. I truly believe if I were lucky enough to win HP’s ” Tech-Over”, I would still be able to spend the much needed quality time with my daughters. To be able to expand their knowledge in today’s ever-so growing Internet world would make my dreams come true!
Sincerely, Laura Kendrick
Here’s the thing that stood out most about Laura’s entry. In the very first line, she credited her self as a “Supermom,” not to mention that she submitted herself for the contest.
Why is that so cool?
Two months ago here on The Dadabase, I wrote a post entitled “Can We Just Nix This Idea Of The Perfect ‘Supermom’ Already?”
Here’s an essential excerpt from it:
“You are Supermom; the real-life version of her. The main difference I see is that the fictional version never complains. But is that a good thing? To never complain? Nope. It’s absolutely necessary to communicate your frustrations as a parent.”
Instead of Laura focusing on what she’s not, she focuses on what she is. I love that. I celebrate her confidence and determination.
Congratulations Laura and Happy Mother’s Day!
Week 25 (5 months).
If you are a regular reader of my “daddy blog”, then you know my writing style well enough to expect this to be a post about Jack being able to literally put his foot in his mouth- and by the end I will make mention that as he gets older he will metaphorically put his foot in his mouth by not knowing when to stop talking- as often is the case with guys. So surely I will need to throw in a reference to John Mayer’s song, “My Stupid Mouth.” But that would be too predictable. So no metaphors this time around- this entry is simply about my son discovering his toes and sucking on them. No “big picture” ideas today.
Jack has discovered his feet. I don’t know if he realizes they are his feet, though. Like the way a dog chases its tail, providing hilarious entertainment for spectators, so is Jack’s love/hate relationship with his feet. I’m assuming that he thinks his toes are little grub worms, and forgetting that the only “solid food” he is eating right now is crushed up oatmeal and bananas, not grub worms, he decides to attack his toes when they are not looking. And might I add, he gets ’em every time!
His slobber is noticeably thick this days, so each time he bites his toes with his toothless gums, the end result somehow reminds me of every alien sci-fi movie I’ve never seen, yet still recognize the image for. But aside from the humor of watching Jack sneak up and attack his toes, and aside from the grossness of it, is the surprising element of it: A baby, with the body proportions of the Michelin Man, is limber enough to easily stick his foot to his mouth anytime he wants.
I completely admit that in the middle of typing that last sentence, I had to stick my foot to my mouth to see if I could do it too. I can. But not as effortless as Jack.
Bonus: Last week I was interviewed and quoted in a Mother’s Day article by Megan Mattes, on Parents.com. Click here to see it.
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