As it sometimes does, my week sort of closed with a bang! The couple of days of April were pretty uneventful, as were Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I worked a morning shift in the gift shop and went home to begin working on some laundry and packing for a weekend trip. Thursday was more of the same, but then the fun began. At a very early hour, 5:15 a.m. to be exact, a friend picked me up and then we went on to gather two more ladies and we took off on a jaunt to McAllen, TX to the Catholic Daughters of the Americas Convention that was taking place there. It was the 51st Biennial CDA Texas State Convention and actually began on the 2nd and would continue until noon of the 5th. However the four of us attended the part that we needed to be there for. The trip was great until about an hour after dawn when we ran into a thunderstorm of great intensity, with a sky full of fireworks to help us on our way. It was beautiful, but at the same time scary and our driver was a truly careful and excellent one. Luckily most of the traffic had slowed down to match the highway conditions, which was water, water everywhere coming across the road in many places and the line of traffic we were following had their flashers on so we could see the cars in front of us. We finally drove out of it and reached McAllen just in time for the Mass we were supposed to attend at 10:30 a.m. Of course, we didn’t have time to go to our hotel or anything else. After a beautiful service, we broke for lunch and had a great time visiting with several of the ladies who had been there since Thursday. That afternoon, the meeting reconvened and went until nearly 6:00 p.m. when we were dismissed.
During the afternoon, they called out the names of the various Courts and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Court Our Lady of Divine Providence, Devine, Texas called out. Since, due to the noise level, and cheering for each Court, I missed hearing the numbers I needed to locate them. Later, when there was a break, I checked with some of the volunteers who were working various check in desks and found this information. When the next session started, I was able to locate where they were sitting, but not get to greet them.
That evening the big celebration of the meeting “Fiesta in Old Mexico” was scheduled and after we were all dressed up, we went back to the Convention Center, and when we finally met up with our group, the Devine CDA group was at the next table. We had a great visit, with them being as surprised to see me, as I was to see them. Of the whole group, there was only one lady that I didn’t know and I even knew the husband who was along. It was great to get to see and visit with folks that I hadn’t seen in quite a while. Of course, after that, we ran into each other several times more. In fact, on Saturday morning, the three of us had our photo taken together. Thanks ladies it was fun seeing and being with y’all.
Our trip home Saturday afternoon/evening was uneventful compared to the trip on Friday, as there were no fireworks in the sky and nothing but a car full of tired women!
Now, let’s talk about this coming weekend, it is Mother’s Day, and time to be nicer than we usually may be to our Mother’s! Just kidding, I know all of my readers are always nice to their Mothers, but we do need to do something a little special for them to make them feel appreciated.
Do you know the origins of this special day honoring our Mothers? It was first observed in Grafton, West Virginia and in the churches of Philadelphia on May 10, 1908, on a suggestion by Miss Anna Jarvis to honor her mother, a Sunday school teacher. Because of her Mother’s fondness of flowers, especially carnations, Miss Jarvis gave a carnation to each person present in her honor.
Mother’s Day International Association was incorporated in December 1912 to encourage a greater observation of the day.
In 1913, by a unanimous vote, The House of Representatives passed a resolution commending the observance of Mother’s Day and calling upon the president, his Cabinet, the Senators and Federal Government Employees to wear a white carnation on the second Sunday of the month to observe Mother’s Day.
President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, issued a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day and directed that the American Flag be displayed on all public buildings on that day.
A holiday called “Mothering Sunday,” an old English custom, antedated the present observance by many years. The name was derived from the custom of the faithful attending the mother church in which they had been baptized on Mid-Lent Sunday. At this time they offered gifts at the altar to the church, and also to their mothers, as tokens of love and gratitude.
Some of the earliest Mother’s Day celebrations on record can be traced back to ancient Greece. The celebrations were held in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. The Roman equivalent was a religious celebration known as Hilaria that lasted from March 15 to 18.
The observance of Mother’s Day has spread to many other countries, including England, Sweden, Denmark, India and Mexico.
In parts of Yugoslavia, Mother’s Day is called “Materice” by the Serbian people and is observed two weeks before Christmas.
It has become the custom to wear white flowers if your mother is deceased and red flowers if she is still living. The flower most usually associated with Mother’s Day then and now has been the carnation.
Do you remember the verse that you may have learned, or that was printed on a mimeographed sheet, with a carnation for you to color for your mother, when you were in grade school? It was called simply “Mother”. I have no idea as to the source, because the first time I saw it and colored it, I was in third grade! It has been around for a very long time and is still as beautiful now as it was then.
MOTHER
M – is for the million things she gave me.
O – is only that she is growing old.
T – is for the tears she shed to save me.
H – is for her heart of purest gold.
E – is for her eyes with love light shining.
R – is right, and right she’ll always be.
Put them all together and they spell “Mother”, a word that means the world to me.
Now, here are a couple of really simple cakes, if you’d like to bake Mom a cake! I’ve made both of these recently and they are very good.
Easy Mixing Fruit and Cake
1 package white cake mix or strawberry cake mix
¼ cup cooking oil
2 eggs
½ cup water
1 can (20-23-oz) pie filling*
Preheat oven to 350º. Pour oil into 9×13 pan and tilt to coat bottom of pan. Put cake mix, eggs and water into pan and stir with fork or spoon until blended, about 2 minutes. Scrape sides and spread batter evenly in pan; spoon pie filling onto batter and use fork to fold into batter just enough to create a marbled effect. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cooled cake may be sprinkled with powdered sugar. Cut into pieces to serve. Store tightly covered. *My sister and I both made this with strawberry cake mix and strawberry pie filling, but she has also made it with cherry pie filling, using yellow or white cake mix.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Cobbler
1 stick ( 1/2 cup) butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 quarts whole strawberries, capped and washed*
4 ounces cream cheese, cut in small pieces**
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter and pour into a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish. In a small bowl, mix together the egg, milk, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour directly over the butter in the baking dish, but do not stir. Add the strawberries, arranging in a single layer as much as possible.
Arrange the cream cheese pieces over strawberries.
*The strawberries I bought were way too big to use whole, so I cut them into quarters.
** I cut mine into a ¼ inch or so dice, the cream cheese does not melt completely. Place dish in the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until top is golden brown and edges are bubbling. (Crust rises up and around the fruit, but fruit will still peek out of top.)