Musings on Mother's Day

My original intention for this blog post was to show you how to incorporate healthy cooking on Mother's Day by having your children prepare sweet intentions for you or cooking with them.  I realized, however, that it was becoming a mom that planted the seed that eventually blossomed into The Whole Meal and wow!  this holiday has much more significance for me than I realized.

When I found out I was pregnant with my first, I wanted to nutritionally nurture her beyond taking the obligatory prenatal vitamin; my path towards whole foods eating had begun.  I was no longer responsible for my own health but now someone else's who was truly at the mercy of my decisions.

I am lucky that my mom cultivated a love of real food for my brother and I since we've been young. My first baby food was soft cooked chicken and vegetables mashed up with rice (as I got older I realized it was Nilaga, the Filipino version of stewed chicken, potatoes and cabbage).  We always had a home cooked dinner- much of it Filipino, her heritage, and some of it American but not always healthy; i.e., I've had my fair share of Hamburger and Tuna Helper (which inspired me to recreate whole food verisons for TWM!).  The lesson learned:  the 80/20 rule- eat real food most of the time and you can fudge part of the time.

By the time my youngest hit preschool I was eating pretty clean (living by my 80/20 rule) and I had many moms asking me for recipe advice which culminated in a very specific request, "Can't you create a website with all the recipes you make for your family so we can have them too AND can you have a shopping list too so it makes it easy to get in and out of the store?".  And The Whole Meal was born.

I think all mothers have her own special "ah ha" moment of what it really means to be a mom and how much this role influences us in ways we may not even be aware of.  I also include all women in this category, as I feel all of us of the female persuasion "mother" someone in our lives.  This does not mean, however, that we just nurture, care, support and love but also includes strength, perseverance and commitment.

Come tomorrow I will wake to a very different attitude on Mother's Day as I have probably fallen into the category of those that saw this day as a "Hallmark Holiday".  So I refuse to see it as a fluff holiday filled with flowers, gifts, spa time, fancy restaurant brunches (although those are nice) rather I'll see it as a time for me to toast all women and the joys, challenges, and many roles that come our way.

Sunday has always been my favorite day of the week but now I'll feel incredibly blessed this Sunday to have a family that honors me for ALL my roles, filled with gratitude for the ways that being a mother has shaped me, as well as open my heart to immense respect to both my mother and mother-in-law for being the women that they are.