On why I love my mom.

My mom makes wonder woman look like a slacker.  Like maybe she’s tired and taking a lunch break instead of saving the world.

I’m one of eight children, yes eight, who are all 2 years apart. My mother didn’t sit down from approximately 1968-2007.  No, she’s still not sitting down if we’re going to be completely accurate.  Not only did she have eight children, she worked full time, was heavily involved in church responsibilities, taught Joy School for the younger kids, and had dinner on the table every night at 6:00 p.m.  I didn’t taste pizza until the 3rd grade, at a Friday night sleepover at a friend’s house. My mother didn’t order out; we didn’t have the money, and my mother was a firm believer in well 
rounded homemade meals. So she planned out meals, cut coupons, shopped sales, and made dollars stretch so we could have a healthy home cooked dinner on the table every night.

What really floors me though aren’t even the homemade dinners my mother made. Well, the dinners really do floor me, I have no earthly idea how she managed them year after year. What really kills me though, is the fact that she made bread for years and years and years. Still makes it to this day.  One day a week she’d make several loaves of bread, let them cool on the counter where they wafted the delicious scent only homemade bread can make, sealed them individually in recycled bread bags, and put them in the deep freezer for the week. We always ate homemade bread, and though I was embarrassed as a kid, wishing I were eating the white fluff my friends pulled out at the school lunch table, I can’t begin to express my gratitude now.

Years later, as an adult raising my own two children, I’m only beginning to understand a fraction of the sacrifices my mother made. Whenever things seem a little too hard, or I feel a little too put upon as a mother, I think of my mother at the kitchen counter once a week shaping loaves of homemade bread for her children.

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This post was sponsored by Procter & Gamble.  These are the same people who brought you those tear inducing commercials about moms of athletes during the Winter Olympics.  I cried every time.  Now you have a chance to reunite with your mom for a milestone moment.  Enter a short essay about why you want to be reunited with her at www.ThankYouMom.com.  You can also vote for your favorite stories at the end of each month. The winners get a gift card to cover the cost of a mom reunion + a portable video camera to capture the whole thing.  The contest runs through November.

Allison

Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!