The Best Mother’s Day Gift – Quick, Cheap, and Major Feels

No, it’s not coupons for doing the dishes or making dinner. It’s so, so much better. It's usually free, can take as little as an hour for a simple version, or as long as an afternoon to make it more elaborate. You will score major brownie points and make your mom catapult you to "Perfect Child' status. 

Quick Story -

One year, I was dead broke and Mother’s Day was rolling around. I had just had my second child and I was all full of mushy hormones. I was really feeling the feels for my mama so I wanted to do something really special for her. But, again, I was dead broke.

I got struck by an inspiration one night and set to work on my gift. I am one of those creative night owls who stays up till the wee hours working on a project because I’m in the zone.

That year I gave my mom a Glass jar full of cut up notecards.

Doesn't sound like much huh? Well, it turns out that it was one of the best gifts I ever gave her.

I made her a Memory and Thank-You Jar.  

It was full of memories, lessons, and thank you’s I have regarding her.  

You know how you go to find a picture of something to post for TBT and wind spending the next hour looking at albums? Well, I reread all those notecards when I set out to take pictures of a few for this post. I gotta say, I so hope one day one of my kids does this for me.

How To Make:

1)    Find a big glass jar - like one of those Ball jars they use for canning. Most of us have one lying around the house somewhere – or heck, make some pasta and use a spaghetti sauce jar. Clean it and pretty it up somehow – paint it, use pretty fabric, tie a nice ribbon, waste a few hours researching ‘Ways To Decorate a Ball Jar’ on Pinterest’, whatever. The idea is to put your personal stamp on it.

2)    Grab some notecards and cut them in half. Use colored cards and pens if you like. Straight cut them or use fancy scrapbooking scissors. Heck, tear up computer paper if you have to – she’s not going to care about the presentation – it’s what’s on them that counts.

3)    Spend the next bit of time tripping down memory lane and writing these things on your cards:

• Memories

  • On each piece of paper, write down a few words that describe a memory you have of the two of you when you were growing up.

Here’s one that I wrote:

“One time, up in Hayward, when it rained, Brenden and I came home from school and the house was warm and you had made some soup for us. I loved coming home to that.”  

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• Thank You’s 

  • Show your appreciation for all that moms do for us as kids that we take for granted. It is only years later when we grow up and don’t have our parents living with us, or that we become parents ourselves, that we realize how much a parent does that goes unappreciated at the time.

Here’s one that I wrote:

“Thank you for the time it has taken for you to pick out all of my gifts throughout the years.  I know how much work & excitement I put into the gifts that I pick out so I can appreciate all that you put into it.”

• Lessons  

Write about lessons that you learned from her over the years. I’m telling you, there is nothing better than this; it validates to your mom that they are doing a good job. Every mom needs to know that they are leaving a legacy to their children – that they mattered in the life of those they were charged with raising to become responsible citizens of this world.

Here’s one that I wrote:

“You taught us about animals by involving us in your studies at the Ag Farm. And by letting us watch Suzie’s kittens being born.”

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Here’s another ( I couldn't decide which one to use)

“One year I stood in the front row during that Christmas pageant while we sang. Afterward, I asked you if you could hear me and if I sounded okay/ You told me that yes, you could and I sounded great. I know now that you couldn’t have possibly heard me but when you said that it gave me a lot of confidence and made me feel good.”

4)    When you are done, fold your cards and place them in the jar.

5)    Sit back and get ready to make your mom the happiest she’s been since you were born.

6)    Feel the feels.

I asked her for her jar when I was writing this article so that I could reference it. Here’s what she said:

“Oh yes, I have that right by my bed.  I go in there all the time. Especially when we fight. I think, oh, my daughter is so sweet. How can I be mad at her?”

This is like 15 years later, folks. I’m telling you, this puppy has come in handy from time to time! I love my mom and I am glad I gave her something from our past that she can use in her present and enjoy in the future.

It makes me happy whenever I see it sitting on her nightstand. Oh, and it didn’t cost a dime; I had everything already lying around the house.

Needless, to say, the best gifts are gifts of your time not your dollars.