Mum was blessed with 4 children, I was the second eldest and 1 of 3 girls, I guess in hindsight, my brother got the raw end of the stick. Definitely not something you appreciate until you’re in your mid 40’s but I guess everyone has a story of how they were hard done by.
Married at 19 and 4 children later, mum was undoubtably committed to her family and supporting dad in all his ventures. She is hard working, is a great cook, she's creative, loves doing puzzles and she LOVES her plants. She’s maybe a little obsessive, no actually she has a problem, they hang, they stand, they grown in the garden but more importantly, she’s sponsored by Bunnings with the amount of pots she has. Oh well, do what makes you happy right?
Mum is surrounded by 11 grandchildren, these are her greatest loves. I wouldn’t disagree, when we get together, her house is literally wired. Kids ranging between the age of 2 and 17, her home is always filled with little people running around, eye’s glued to screens, TV constantly on and no one around. There is always someone asking for food, paper for drawing, sticky tape and in return mum asking the kids how to do something on her laptop or mobile that she just can’t figure out.
Mum bakes, it’s what she knows how to do, and does well. Everyone talks about her sweets, asks for them, appreciates them. My sisters and I as we all moved out of home and started our own families will continue to make some of the same cakes and add new ones to our repertoire. I can’t say that we were fond of baking when we were little, or even helping out actually. We defiantly weren’t’ keen especially when we were interrupted when watching TV to help mum sift flour into a mixture…is that enough? more? and then quickly running back to the TV as soon as we could and in the hope she didn’t ask us again.
As I've been living in Melbourne for close to 10 years now, we don’t get to be emersed with our family in Adelaide as often as we like. Although we keep in touch regularly, nothing beats seeing everyone face to face, so you could imagine the struggle during covid. Mum would usually fly up to Melbourne a few times a year and hang out with us during school holidays but that too hasn’t happened for sometime.
When we do visit Adelaide, we are showered in food, the fridge is stocked, mum’s favourite snacks and cakes are made and the hardest part is not stuffing your face, because there is nothing like mum’s cooking. The guilts are placed on us regularly to eat because she has all this food, knowing full well that every night is jam packed with visiting family and friends so dinner is always sorted. But we still manage to eat our way through the fridge or at least take it back with us.
We really do like to eat out on Mother’s Day because all mother’s deserve it, plus to prep, feed the tribe and clean, (none of my sisters want any part of it) but to try and convince my brother a charcoal BBQ is too much work, never happens, so he wins…. all the time.
Not sure if we’re the norm or exception to the rule, but with 4 siblings, we still manage to be writing our Mother’s Day card on the day, literally while we’re preparing the food someone hides away somewhere in the house to write in the card. The decision of what to buy is just the worst, each year we struggle with ideas, then what makes it worse, a sister (you know who you are) would go and buy her own gift leaving us to ‘work something out’ real quick… THANKS ALOT!
Being so far away, we've lucky that mum sends us biscuits in the post. I can't lie, they're really appreciated but gosh we don't know how to pace ourselves. Let's say, they don't last long in our house. Nothing beats home made treats!
Love you Mum (aka YiaYia)
