Happy Mother's Day

I've decided that as long as I'm a blogger I will share one of my favorite memories about my mom on Mother's Day.....

Mom LOVED to entertain with food. She was an excellent cook and I so wish I had paid more attention to her culinary skills when I was younger. She had a side business of catering weddings and anniversary parties. It was a family thing and we all loved it. She would give Kristen and I a cut of the profits from each wedding and it paid pretty well. It was always her dream to have a full-time catering business. We were looking into grants for women business owners for a while but as her health failed it was put on the back burner. I loved those times in the kitchen with her. We all had our departments to take care of. I was the sandwich maker....how can you mess up sandwiches, right?!

The night before I graduated from IU I had a dream about her. She had passed away the summer before my last year there but in my dream it was the day of my graduation party and my mom was there. We were all in the kitchen doing our catering duties and preparing for the guests to arrive. In my dream I knew my mom was not alive anymore but didn't understand why nobody else was freaking out about it. My dream ended with us sitting on the couch, watching TV before our guests arrived. On the TV was a commercial for funeral caskets. My thoughts were "Oh, that's not as pretty as the casket we had for Mom." I instantly looked at her and she said, "Karen, don't think about sad things. Just enjoy our time together." It was like God gave me the gift of that dream. Everything about the graduation party in my dream went like it would have if she had been there. I got to experience it anyway.

I miss those times in the kitchen with her and I will cherish those memories forever. Everytime I entertain for showers or small get togethers at my house I try to arrange little plates of food and I always think, "My momma taught me how to throw a party!"