Happy Mother's Day!

Today we celebrate Mothers everywhere for putting up with us all through the years always being there when we need them. 

In honor of the day, I'd like to share some memories of my mother. I remember her as a mom, certainly, but also as a working woman, a role model who taught me a lot about what it means to be a professional. 

Mom taught Home Economics for 30 years, and along the way introduced many, many students to the skills they would need to function in an adult world. I know a lot of kids I went to school with regarded Home Ec., along with shop class, as an "easy A," but to say so to my mother was a good way to get on her bad side. 

It's time for the boys to learn cake decorating, circa 1981.

To her, learning to scramble your own eggs and hem your own pants was more than domestic drudgery; it was learning to live an independent life. I remember when a boy in class complained to her that he didn't need to learn how to cook, because some day, he would have a wife to do all that for him. "You want to have to depend on some woman just to eat for the rest of your life?" she snapped back, and that was her philosophy in a nutshell. Teaching her students to read food labels carefully, to price compare, to budget, and to do as much of their own cooking and sewing as possible, created not just smart consumers, in her view, but good citizens.

Today, Home Economics is called Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) and, if you are lucky, you are in a school district that still provides it. 

So here's to all the moms, whether they work in the home or out of it, on their special day!

Mom, living it up in the laundry unit.