Mom's and Family Birthday

You didn’t come with boon-roll together and bows
Instead you arrived in Mother Nature’s trick out apparel
without fault or blemish or flaw with ten little fingers, and ten little toes.
Your Gender determined by the Powers of Heaven, and
He created you are for us, the completed pick.
Additionally as Parents, we undeniably have imperfections.
From the second you were born, you became an entire part of our life
be fond of of parents and children developed into a greater constituent, forming a alliance
Of loving be fond of and cast or frame of mind.
You have inspired in us limitless self-sufficiency, undoubtedly perceptible in your achievements acquired.
From babyhood to grown up you have made our life without fault or blemish or flaw and fulfilling,
Assembling a life of correspondent sense desired.
We’ve gained far more from you, than we ever gave.
Lots of Memories are etched in our minds, plus superadded
Memories of the subsequent time to continually carve.
In inference we want to add,
Have a Wonderful Birthday!
ALL OUR be fond of: Mom and Dad”

~© Margie Parsons~

Unique Mothers Day Gifts

If you’re mother is anything like mine, she probably dedicates most of her downtime to tending to the garden and working on the landscape around the yard. That love must have been passed on to me, because I also understand and appreciate the beauty of working with your hands and tapping into the earth. To her, there’s nothing better than rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands a little dirty. I’m not really sure though, if it’s her true love of Mother Nature, or if she really just wants some time away from dad, which I am sure a lot of your mothers can relate to! This time of year we can’t deny how great it feels to shake off the winter blues (for some of us, the snow especially) and get outside to enjoy the blue skies and greenery surrounding us. For my mom, this enjoyment also comes with being able to finally get back to transforming our yard into the picture of perfection that she’s always envisioned for it. Raking away the leftovers of fall, plotting, creating again and then being able to pick the fruits and vegetables from her own garden, I can see the glow in her eyes and the happiness that fills her heart. But, let us not forget that this is also the season where we recognize our mothers on Mother’s Day and should reflect on ideas and ways that we can show them our appreciation. It may be easy to forget, as we get wrapped up in our own spring festivities, but it’s important we pay homage in the same dedicated and passionate way that our mother’s pay homage to the earth. I recognize that can be hard, though, if the level of passion your mother has for gardening is, in fact, like my own mothers, as we can be assured that they already own every gardening tool and accessory imaginable. Therefore, that route for gift giving becomes blocked off and we are left at a dead-end, feeling like there is no place else to turn? Maybe your mother has other interests and those paths may offer viable options for you, but I’m currently at a loss. So, my (or our) best bet is to consider more unique Mothers Day gifts, and maybe go down a more creative route that will incorporate gardening in less of a “Here’s a shovel” kind of way. I recently went to a local Edible Arrangements store and saw that they offered a wide variety of fruit arrangements, big and small, and with many ways to personalize whatever option you choose.

 They even have a holiday section where Mother’s Day is clearly covered, and coincidentally enough, they have arrangements that you can purchase in these adorable little watering cans! Not only is that right up her alley, but it’s a cross functional and dynamic gift! Once she eats the fruit, she can either use the little watering can for decorating the house or garden, or she can use it to water smaller plants around the house or even outside, if she so wishes. Thank goodness for Edible Arrangements! Not only will mom love this gift for the fruit, but it pulls deeply at the strings of what she cares about most, and that’s giving back to the earth.

Personalized Mothers Day Gifts

7.       There’s nothing better than finding a gift you can personalize to show someone you really care, for whatever the occasion. And with Mother’s Day approaching fast, I’ve been frantically trying to determine exactly what type of gift my mom would like enough for me to personalize. I’m sure, like me, some of you also find yourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, feeling more and more frustrated with the growing number of dead ends you seem to be hitting when trying to find creative and fun ideas that are new! Personally, I am huge on any and every opportunity I can muster up to add some unique flare to a gift, for whatever season or holiday comes along. Unfortunately, my personalized gift giving may come to a complete halt this particular Mother’s Day season, as her house has become positively filled to the gills with stuff from past years that I’ve worked hard to make special. I realized that I just can’t be so insensitive to fill it with more, merely because personalized gifts are my forte. That being said, and as much as it pains me to repeat, she definitely doesn’t need any more of the following:

·         Sweatshirts, t-shirts, hats, mugs, key chains, door mats, blankets or pillows with her name on them. Or any variation of her name, for that matter (mom, mother, ma, or whatever the given name on her birth certificate says).

·         Picture frames, jewelry boxes, or landscape stones that are engraved with silly whimsical sayings, proverbs or words like “Faith” or “Believe.”

·         Nothing with quotes about motherhood (which just makes sense), even though I’m incredibly tempted.

·         Personalized stationary gifts that she’ll never get around to using because she’s had a hard enough time filling the ones from previous years.

·         Keepsakes.

·          Keepsakes or any more keepsakes.

 So, how can you find some personalized Mothers Day gifts that aren’t going to add more clutter and chaos to what’s already become a household of stamped and engraved “Moms,” communicating that dad essentially owns nothing? It really is a good thing he’s not interested in that kind of stuff, because if he was, we could probably run our very own keepsake museum. While that might be an interesting idea in itself for a Mother’s Day gift, she has enough of a hard time letting me into the house with my shoes on, let alone a band of crazy keepsake lovers. No frets, because what I did stumble upon but my personal (hehe) savior this season. They will end all of the hardships surrounding my difficult search for personalized Mothers Day Gifts. Better known as a company called Edible Arrangements, if you haven’t heard from them, they’ve been around for a while. They offer fruit bouquets and different boxes of chocolate dipped fruit that you can personalize with things like: balloons, stuffed animals, messages and more. It’s really the perfect gift for someone looking to do something unique, and it offers a great break in the habitual gift giving processes for that occasional hoarder (or giver) of personalized gifts. I’m sure that mom will appreciate the yummy deliciousness that comes from a fruit bouquet or box by Edible Arrangements, and plus, you’ll save her some much needed space. Except for in her belly of course!

Gifts for Mothers Day

As a young boy we are taught to be tough, to hold back our emotions, keep quiet about our feelings and to desensitize ourselves from the world around us. Sometimes, even to the people we are supposed to be the closest and most open to. I think for some reason it’s been believed and maybe passed on that this way of thinking and operating in the world would protect us. On most levels, I feel as though being socialized in this way has become an unnecessary evil in our lives that hasn’t been able to be broken. Maybe it’s because at times it has offered us some positive outcomes that we didn’t want to sacrifice. The truth of the matter is that a lot of those times, forcing these stereotypes onto ourselves and others has only inevitably hurt us. In this specific blog article, I’ll briefly focus on the relationship many of us have neglected growing up (among others) because we couldn’t allow ourselves to let go, share in and reap the benefits of many of the beautiful bonds that are available to us. That bond for me, and many of us, has been with our mothers.
These pressures started very early on in our childhood, during the days when mom would drop us off at school and we would be fighting tooth and nail to escape the clutch of her tenderness for fear of being seen as ‘soft.’ You probably decided to endure the terrors of the bus to just to avoid it. Then, we let the incidents grow larger and larger and we allowed ourselves to continue growing farther away from the connectedness we need with our mothers. Connections, as men, that provide us the equipment to function as loving and capable boyfriends, husbands and even friends. The mother-son connection is extremely important and studies show that is also determines, to a large extent, not only what sons think about themselves, but also what they think about women in general. I think women and our mothers deserve more from us and with Mother’s Day right around the corner, it’s not too late to remove that shield of ‘masculinity’ and give them what’s owed. It’s actually the perfect opportunity to reach out and uncover what’s been missing from your relationship with them for however long it may have been lacking. I think you’ll be surprised how much mom, being as wonderful and caring as she is, will ease you through it. All you have to do is keep an open mind. The hardest part will be rifling through the many gifts for Mothers Day to consider when taking this step. You might want to lighten things up, though, and break the ice with something as simple and unique as an Edible Arrangement. They take the beauty and tradition of flowers and add a thoughtful twist that lets her know you’ve been thinking of her and that you are ready to connect with her. For me, this gesture and gift has done wonders for kick starting the new relationship I’ve established with my own mother. Let this year be the year of mother and son, and let a bouquet from Edible Arrangements start the conversation.

Great Mothers Day Gifts

When I got married a few years back, I discovered fairly quickly how much the gift giving processes of my life were going to change, forever. Before I tied the knot and was still clueless to the significance of these rituals, gift giving was limited to my side of the family, with pretty informal giving for my partner’s side; mostly big holidays and birthdays. Since then, gift giving has grown immensely and has added some obvious stress to finding fresh and unique ideas for each upcoming occasion. Giving has now expanded from my wife and her parents to: siblings, nephews, nieces, godchildren, grandparents, cousins, friends, dogs and pretty much anyone else you could think of. I’m almost surprised we don’t have to pay homage to the sun and Mother Nature, seeing as some of my wife’s friends are rather crunchy granola (not a bad thing). Some gift giving remains pretty informal, of course, and thank goodness. Really, it’s not like we go out and buy doggy playscapes for Sam the cocker spaniel, but we will pick up a treat or two for his overbearing and loving owners that find it important to honor their furry friend’s birthday. I must be honest, though, no matter what and how many occasions creep up on the calendar and stress me out in terms of gift ideas, Mother’s Day has to be the most important and significant day of appreciation that any person (specifically a man) has to prepare for. That might just be my sentiment, but bear with me either way. Not only must I thoughtfully garnish a gift for my own mother, but now, for my beautiful wife and mother of my two children. On top of that, I’ve also got a mother-in-law waiting for my recognition on Mother’s Day! Believe you me, I’m not complaining about showing my appreciation to these very important women in my life, but how on earth am I going to come up with special gifts for each of them? If you’re in my boat (which seems stranded), and I’m assuming many of you men out there are, my words of advice are to take this day very seriously and with a kind of masculine grace. We owe it to our own mothers, mother-in-laws and wives, to be thoughtful, because they have helped shape and mold each of our lives and they will continue to be the backbone of any good man. So, listen up, for I have found a very special way of communicating our appreciation and in a surprisingly easy way, which you should consider when thinking of your own great Mother’s Day gifts. Last year, I contacted the company Edible Arrangements after I saw an ad from them on the television. They offer a variety of fruit bouquets and boxes, all of which you can ask for with dipped chocolate. They’ve got tons of different arrangements to choose from and they set me up with three very beautiful and delicious gifts for those three very important women in my life. Let me tell you, the response I got was tremendous. They are health conscious, delicious, aesthetically beautiful and If you’re really looking for great Mothers Day gifts, you just can’t screw up with Edible Arrangements. Forget the flowers and get with the times!

Heaven Needed Moms:Dedicated

Americans Will Blow $7 Billion on Halloween

Now That’s Creepy: Americans Will Blow $7 Billion on Halloween
By Martha C. White September 29, 2011
Our financial state is pretty scary right now, and we’re all watching our spending pretty closely. So what’s the one thing Americans are willing to shell out for in this economy? Costumes, decorations and entertainment designed to scare us even more.
According to the National Retail Federation, Americans plan to spend $6.9 billion this year for Halloween. To put that number into context, the same NRF survey found that Americans planned to spend $3.3 billion as recently as 2005.
This biggest chunk of this money — $2.5 billion of it — will go to costumes. Of that total, a little more than $300 million will be spent on costumes for pets. We’ll also drop $2 billion on candy and just under that on decorations.
This year isn’t an anomaly, either. Halloween spending did decline in 2009, when it dropped by about $1 billion to $4.8 billion. But by last year, it had bounced back to $5.8 billion.
(GALLERY: Top 10 Celeb-Inspired Halloween Costumes)
By contrast, the much larger holiday season spending category isn’t growing as quickly. We were projected to spend $447 billion celebrating Christmas and other end-of-year holidays last year, but that figure was a measly 2.3 percentage points higher than what we spent in 2009. Calamitous political and economic events generally put a crimp in our festive spirit. So what makes Halloween the exception?
Well, it appears that troubled times drive our zeal for escapism; romance-novel sales boomed during the last recession, just like extravagant musicals that were popular during the Depression. Add to that the fact that Halloween has undergone a shift from a sort of silly, kid- and candy-centric affair to a full-blown event for adults. This year, the NRF says nearly 70 percent of adults plan to celebrate Halloween. Bars all over the country hold parties for the 21-and-up crowd and manufacturers crank out costumes that definitely aren’t meant for family trick-or-treating.
(MORE: Top 10 Laziest Halloween Costumes)
Modern-day Halloween traditions are said to derive from ancient rituals intended to protect people from ghosts, harsh winters and crop failures. These superstitions seem primitive today; and yet, putting ourselves in control of scary motifs seems to provide a measure of security even now.
Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2011/09/29/now-thats-creepy-americans-will-blow-7-billion-on-halloween/#ixzz1ZSLdhw2o