Sunday Sweets For My Mom
May 8, 2016 I'm not sure when it happened, exactly - maybe sometime in middle school? - but I'll always remember the day Mom told me I was skipping school, and we were going shopping instead.
;)
(By Bake Me A Cake)
AW YEAH.
We spent the morning driving around to Goodwill and various thrift shops, trying on clothes, singing along to the car radio, and later stopping at Subway for lunch - which I remember being a treat, because we got the cookies for dessert.
;)
(By Mor Di Da Mor Di Da)
(This is me around chocolate chip cookies. ALWAYS.)
We didn't talk about school. We didn't talk about my friends or grades or any of those awkward teenage "body-changing" topics. We just told each other which tops looked best, chatted about nothing, laughed, and had fun.
It was the first time I realized Mom wasn't just my mom, she was also my friend.
;)
(By Silvia Mancini)
Mom was an RN while I was growing up, which meant my brother and I got zero sympathy for our scraped knees and boo-boos. Don't get me wrong; Mom was an expert at patching us up - but if we wanted a hearty "You poor thing!", then Dad was the place to go.
;)
(By Karolyn's Kakes)
I later learned Mom was working nights in the ICU then, and routinely saw the kind of pain and grief I can't even fathom, because she came home and smiled and hugged us just the same.
;)
Once, on another hooky day with Mom, she and I went to the matinee of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - you know, the live-action one?
;)
(By Suganana)
It was terrible. But Mom loves terrible kid movies, and to this day she'll request we see whatever the latest animated or G-rated flick is, no matter how ominous the reviews, and then she'll laugh and gasp and have so much fun that you'll wind up loving it, too.
In my teens Mom was in a car accident that prevented her from ever working as a nurse again. She had to wear a neck brace for ages, and later had a surgery to wire her jaw shut for a while. Then she got braces... at the same time *I* had braces.
;)
(By Sweet Sugarbelle)
People kept mistaking us for sisters, which Mom REALLY liked, but I just found embarrassing - especially that time an older friend of mine hit on her... with me standing right there.
;)
(By Imaginup)
Today my folks live in a different state, but I'm happy to say they are still my friends. We visit often, and even go to Dragon Con together, where Mom loves dressing up steampunk - with outfits she still puts together from the thrift store.
;)
(By Sweetlake Cakes)
Lately Mom likes to video chat and show me all the crafts she's teaching during her volunteer work at the local retirement home. And now she and Dad have joined a Harley Davidson group/club/gang(?), so they spend weekends taking long rides together decked out in the most, um, fascinating fashions.
;)
(I could have gone my whole life without seeing my mother in leather chaps, you guys. MY WHOLE LIFE.)
Mom's the most servant-hearted person I know, and has seen and endured a lot of pain, though you'd never know it. Somehow she's managed to keep a sense of wonder and whimsy through life - something I try hard to emulate. She raised me to love reading and Star Trek and fantasy and fun, and taught me that when the going gets rough, you turn up the music and sing along extra loud - and off-key. ;)
For my folks' 40th anniversary a few years back, we sent them to Disney World - mostly for Mom - and I'll never forget her delight.
;)
(By Mutlu Dükkan)
She's the big kid who makes you remember how great life really is sometimes - even when life really isn't so great. The best moms are like that. And days like today help us remember to thank our moms, and be grateful for the things we just didn't know how to appreciate when we were younger.
So happy Mother's Day, Mom. Thanks for showing me that when I thought you were being the most embarrassing, you were really showing me how to be the best adult. I love you, I'm proud of you, and I hope we can go shopping again someday soon.
*****
Thank you for using our Amazon links to shop! USA, UK, Canada.
PS - This is a first-time-ever cross-post from my other blog, Epbot. Same text, different pictures. So if you'd like to see the version with pics of my mom in steampunk costumes & on motorcycles & hugging awkward young Jen, click here.
Reader Comments (46)
Aw www :D
Happy Mother's Day, Jen's mom! And all moms! And moms in Heaven! Lovely, beautiful, non-wrecky cakes for all of you!
Your Mom is about the COOLEST EVER! I love that she cosplays thrift store steampunk. I love even more that she will enjoy any kids movie, no matter how bad. She reminds me of my Mom. :) Happy Mother's Day to them both!!!
What a sweet post (no...oh, heck, pun totally intended). Happy Mother's day to your mom, and all of the moms out there!
This made me tear up a little! Love you Mom <3
Sweetest Sunday sweets ever! Keep on appreciating that mom, Jen. These years are precious.
My eyes are leaking; this is such a beautiful story. Thank you BOTH for sharing your talents and gifts with us. 💕
Love both posts but the pictures on your other site are better, gotta say. :oD That friendship through the ages cake is killing me. Executed perfectly. As are all the other cakes here but that one made me feel happy.
(Testing, testing, ❤️💛💚💙💜) 🤓
Such a beautiful tribute to your mother - even made me get a little misty-eyed;-)!! I, like you, am fortunate and SO blessed to still have my wonderful mother (whom I admire and appreciate more and more with the passage of time!) in my life. Happy Day to mothers everywhere!
Oh that was so sweet to read, I almost didn't even notice the cakes! Such a wonderful description of your mom, hope I'm able to bring up my kiddos with at least half that awesomeness!
Aww. I hope I can be half as awesome as your mom. Nerdy, geeky bad ass moms are the best moms.
Your momma .... sounds aces. And the Cookie Monster cake is almost too cute to eat.
What a great post. My Mom is still showing me how to do it strong !!!! Happy Moms day to ya all.
Beautiful cakes, and the most loving tribute to your mom...can we have one from John, too?
And your mom is so pretty (and cute!) Wish we could see your cuteness up there with her!
Lovely.
Wow. Sweet, sweet, sweet. I think my Mom would have liked you and your Mom, Jen. She was one of a kind, dressed uniquely, was offbeat, and had a flair for making people happy about themselves, whether they were young or old. ... Happy Mother's day to all....!!<3.......Great post! ((Sigh!)) Oh! I forgot to even look at the Sweets! Bye! =^~.~^=
Your mother is the kind of Mother everyone deserves.
I love the picture of your mom with her hat and gloves.
Your mom is the kind of mom I wish I'd had - and kind I've tried to be. Congratulations to you both.
You are a very lucky girl, Jen.
What a beautiful tribute.
Your post made my eyes get all leaky. Thank you so much for a wonderful tribute to an amazing mother and for all the great cakes (as usual). This post explains a LOT about you, Jen. Thanks for sharing.
I did one called Mom 3.0 a few years back that really helped me come to terms with my own aging and my own mother issues. You are very lucky to have such a cool mom!
Beth
Sweetest Sunday sweets yet! What a lovely tribute to your mom. (And that cookie candle with the little bite taken out of it is just genius).
I loved reading this story on Epbot, and I loved reading it again here! So fun to see the same loving tribute with different illustrations. Lucky you, lucky mom.
Bestest post evah! Jen wins Internet feels today!
I love both versions. What a great idea to cross post it with different pictures. Your mother looks so young in her graduation picture, but also so sweet and fun.
Thank you for the memories of times playing hooky with my mom, who passed 22 years ago. <3
What a beautiful tribute! Happy Mom's Day to all the moms!
I have always thought that I love seeing the cakes but tend to focus more on your writing in these posts. But having read this on Epbot and here on Cake Wrecks, I've just realized how brilliantly the photos really do affect how the writing is perceived. I mean, of course it does because often the wiring refers directly to something in the photo and won't make sense without the photo. But even in a post like this that could really stand alone without any photos. Both posts are very moving and lovely tributes to your mom, but the two posts together give what I assume is a more complete picture of your mom, even though the words are (mostly) the same.
Hi Jen, your mum (sorry, I'm English ) sounds lovely.
My mum is an amazing woman too.
Love and best wishes to all the mum's who make us what we are
(Mother's Day in the uk was a while ago ) xx
Congrats on having terrific parents who let you be the best possible you. Moms are special and it sounds like yours is extra special!
Lovely
Your mom sounds awesome. Period.
I know a young lady whose mother could pass as her sister; they make a stunning pair, and even think alike - as you and your dear mother seem to. Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there!
What a wonderful post - you have a great mum, by the sounds of it, and I now know where you got your great sense of humour and joy in even the wreckiest of cake wrecks.
This is when i'm so Grateful to have learn English cause i'm Latina and i love love your page Jen. I'm completely In Tears Babe. Latin moms maybe are too traditional sometimes if anyone knows a Mexican mom is almost the same type no exactly but my mom just to be a Groupie and as your mom teach you how to be a awesome Trekke, mine show me bands and music and now i'm work in a radiostation. Your posts are more cool each time, this one go es to my favs.
@ Jen -- you made me cry ... in a good way ;-)
OMG! Your mom looks sooooo young!!! She must have been a child bride ;)
Your mom sounds awesome! I loved the cakes but loved the story more!
What a lovely tribute to your mom. Happy mother's day to you both :)
Your Mom is proud of you! Great post!
Very touching, Jen! My own mom passed away when I was 12 (she had cancer), so I missed those years with her entirely. I hope you will forgive me if, when I become a doddering old lady, I choose to forget my actual history, and substitute some of what you wrote about your mom!
What a wonderful Mom's Day tribute!!! (and the cakes were beautiful...just like your mom!)
Thank you Jen - now I KNOW I'm doing something right as a mother, because my daughter and I spent an hour yesterday singing along on a car ride to the Hercules sound-track - unbelievably loudly and off-key (which, for two musical theatre geeks is both appalling and extremely fun).
So, maybe I'm not doing such a bad job after all. I have the embarrassment factor down pat already!
Thank you, Jen's mum - and thank you Jen for sharing her with us in this post. :)
Whew! Dusty in here, my allergies are really acting up. Yours acting up? Wow, it's really gotta be the...sniffle..dust.
What a beautiful tribute to your awesome Mom! I agree 100% about the leather chaps.
I now officially want your mom to adopt me.