Happy Mother's Day!

 

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, I found myself thinking about where the holiday actually came from. Like many traditions we celebrate today, its beginnings were much quieter and more heartfelt than the modern rush of flowers, greeting cards, and crowded restaurants.

Mother’s Day in the United States officially became a national holiday in 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May a day to honor mothers. But the woman most responsible for creating the holiday was Anna Jarvis of West Virginia.

After the death of her mother in 1905, Anna wanted to create a special day dedicated to honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children. Her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, had spent much of her life caring for others, organizing women’s groups, and helping families in need during difficult times. Anna believed mothers deserved recognition not just for grand accomplishments, but for the quiet, everyday love they gave their families.

The first official Mother’s Day celebration was held in a church in Grafton, West Virginia, in

1908. White carnations became associated with the holiday because they had been Anna’s mother’s favorite flower. Before long, the tradition spread across the country.

Ironically, Anna Jarvis later became frustrated with how commercialized Mother’s Day became. She had envisioned handwritten letters, simple visits, and heartfelt gratitude — not expensive gifts or elaborate displays. In many ways, her original idea was beautifully simple: pause for a moment and let mothers know they are loved.

I think there’s something rather sweet about that.

When we look back at earlier generations, mothers and grandmothers often served as the heart of the home. They passed down recipes, stories, traditions, songs, and faith. They mended clothes, comforted children, tended gardens, canned vegetables, and somehow kept families going through both joyful seasons and hard times.

Even now, many of our happiest memories are tied to those small, ordinary moments:
the smell of something baking in the kitchen, a favorite quilt, a handwritten recipe card, or hearing someone say, “Come sit a spell.”

So this weekend, whether you’re celebrating your mother, grandmother, a beloved aunt, or simply remembering someone dear to your heart, I hope you take a little time to honor the women who helped shape your life.

And perhaps Anna Jarvis had the right idea after all.

Sometimes the most meaningful gift is simply letting someone know they mattered.

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Sweet Americana Sweethearts! 

Until Next Time,

Kit

BENT AND FORGOTTEN SAWS--Does anyone even remember the meaning of saw? by Marisa Masterson

 Not once. Not twice, But each person who read my book in advance objected to it! Saw.

It's the word I learned to describe colloquial sayings. Vintage sayings were old saws. How about you? Is that familiar?

These sayings pepper my work in progress. The heroine, Sybil, falls back on them often to express herself. Since it is a piece of historical fiction, I dug for forgotten saws.

It seems an age since I've heard someone say, "Heaven's to Betsy." Who was Betsy, even?

When did someone last tell you not to take any wooden nickels or not to get your knickers in a twist? I believe 'undies in a bunch' replaced that one.

An I found even older sayings, ones I have never heard used. Here is one, 'some pumpkins,' as in people who think they are a big deal. Is that new to you as well? Another is 'not by a jugful'--meant to show something or someone was not a big deal.

I like this one--pine overcoat. Can you guess its meaning? It's a coffin. Or how about 'giggle mug' referring to a person who always smiles? 

These great phrases that capture a different time and place, but there is a problem. Should I use them since they no longer hold meaning for us?

If I do include them in my book, I will weave the meaning into my characters' conversations. Not adding the flavor of that era brought to life by language would be a shame, at least to my way of thinking. 

So, here's to an old chestnut!

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Rigby had a dream job studying plant life in the beautiful Colorado mountains, but when the river turns yellow and the plants start dying, he knows something has gone terribly wrong. Determined to uncover the truth, he heads to the nearby mine to investigate. But what he finds there is chaos and tension bubbling beneath the surface. 

As a professor from New York, Rigby is already a target for the angry miners, and now he must navigate the dangerous waters of a polluted river and a potential marriage to a stranger. Will he be able to protect his beloved mountains and his own future?

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