Marvelous Monday and Marvelous Mum!

Once again, it's a beautiful sunny day here in Southern Ontario, Canada.  Today is "Civic Holiday" and so my dear Mr. Magnolia and I are enjoying a lovely long weekend.

Here's a peak at the delicious breakfast we had this morning - blueberry pancakes topped with fresh strawberries, with a side of lean turkey breakfast sausage.  Yummy!  We love eating out on the pool deck but to keep our coffee piping hot, I serve it in these handy "mason jar" mugs with screw on tops.  

But although I love having breakfast with my husband, that's not what I'm posting about today!

On this Marvelous Monday, I want to post about my Marvelous Mum!  I'm chuckling as I write that because she would think it was so corny if she knew I was calling her that, but truly she is quite wonderful.  There is something so special about having a mother who is also a friend.  I hear from some of my friends about how much they dread getting together with their own mothers, and I just feel awful on their behalf!  Imagine missing out on that special friendship that is carved out of years of mutual nurturing and the intricate layers of knowledge that can only come from so many shared experiences.  I also have friends who have lost their mothers, and wish they could have just one day more to share the joy of the unique friendship that is shared between mothers and daughters.  So I have learned not to take for granted my relationship with my own mother.  My life is so enriched by our friendship.

My Mum is strong and vulnerable, matter-of-fact and whimsical, abrupt and compassionate all wrapped up in one.  Before I was five, she taught me how to read, how to tie my shoes and the names of a hundred birds or more.  By the time I was ten, she had taught me to love God, love others, and love myself.  She introduced me to books and the world of literature, so that I would have a life-long love affair with reading.  But she also taught me to love the sound of a well-read poem, to enjoy closing my eyes and listening to the rise and fall of a skilled orator who could make the words on a page come alive.  She taught me to appreciate nature and find joy in the simplest things around us.  And she modeled loyalty and honesty so that I would know that these are character qualities worth developing.

My Mum is still teaching me but now I am teaching her too.  Our relationship is no longer that of adult and child, but rather two equals.  We share many things in common and yet have discovered over the years that we are in fact, quite different in personality.  Our relationship has waxed and waned at times as life circumstances have sometimes kept us farther apart, then brought us back together again.  At two years of age, I knew I needed my Mum.  At twelve, I wanted to believe I didn't need her at all but secretly feared I couldn't live without her!   And now that I'm forty-two, I find myself realizing that while I don't need her in the same way from decade-to-decade, yet I will always need her in some way regardless of how old I get.  She will always be my Mum and so I recognize that I will always want to protect her and be protected by her.  

Here's a picture of my Mum I took last week,

beside the beautiful sunflowers she has grown.  

So on this Marvelous Monday, I am especially thankful for my Mum and the wonderful friendship we enjoy. I thought about finding some sentimental quote to end this post, but truthfully, my Mum would probably laugh hysterically if I found something sweet and cloying.  So, I found this one instead, which is definitely one she would enjoy.  She is, after all, the type of mother who seems to prefer ragamuffin children who are mischievous and have a propensity to play in mud puddles.  No wonder we get along so well.

"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me,

but I think she enjoyed it."

Mark Twain