Children ask the same question year after year, when is mother's day? This day reserved for mothers everywhere is recognized on the second Sunday each May. This is the day where children can express the love and affection they have for their mom. Mothers day has been a recognized holiday for centuries even before it was a day for department stores to push their selection of cards and cheap perfumes.

This day can be viewed in a variety of different ways. One it can be the day for mothers to lounge in bed and wait for breakfast to be served to them or two it is the day when grown ups call their mom from across the miles to catch them up on the previous years activities.

This Sunday in May is also the one day a year when children can be as messy as they want in the kitchen and not one of their moms will be concerned about the flour covered floor and sink full of dishes. These days fade over time and become replaced with a ten minute call out of guilt.

A mom is any woman in your life that wiped the tears and hugged the boogie man away. Mothers day is a time for celebration of the women in your life. Your biological, foster, sister, aunt or grandma, these are the women in your life. A mother does not have to be the one who gave birth. A mother is the one who was there.

As adults we are consumed with work, school and families. It is easy to neglect the phone calls and the surprise visits to the women in our lives. Being both a mother and a daughter I can attest to busyness as well as the anticipation both in getting and giving the yearly phone call.

When is mother's day and where it comes from? Ironically one of the greatest advocates of motherhood and its celebration was Anna Marie Jarvis who never had children. However, she spent her life making this a day of non commercialization. Carrying on her mothers goal of making this a day for mothers to be excused from working, the day was finally recognized in 1914.

The founding of mothers day in 1914 was centuries after the English had begun their version in the 1600s. It was referred to as Mothering Sunday and was a time for servants to be granted time away for the sole purpose for traveling to visit with mothers. The gift much different than of current times was a baked cake that made the journey with them as an offering to their mothers.

Children no longer spend hours in the kitchen preparing a cake for a journey to mothers house, it instead consist of flower bouquets ordered days in advance sent with a card of words written by the florist. Do not misunderstand this, mothers love the idea of their children remembering to send the flowers, however, it is not the flowers or the card that has made a mother happy, but the idea of the child remembering her. Which is after all the original purpose of a specific day set aside to recognize the women in your life?

The majority of mothers can still produce the first card presented to them along with the macaroni sculpture you could not wait for her to unwrap. This year when May rolls around and you begin to ask yourself when is mother's day and what should I send? Surprise the women in your life with the best mother's day gift of all, you. And for a real treat throw in a handmade card, some homemade chocolate chip pancakes and a macaroni masterpiece, I can assure you both will be on display for years to come and the breakfast will be her most memorable in years.