Today is a day to celebrate mothers. We think about all the things mothers do for us and our families. Our mothers provide us with comfort, warmth, food, clothing, a place to call home.
Our mothers are not the only ones that take care of us. Remember, our Earth has provided many of these same things that make our lives more comfortable and meaningful.
What have you done for the mothers in your life? On Mother’s Day, my dad was famous for gifts that would lessen my mother’s workload. A sewing machine, a new washing machine and a riding lawn mower come to mind. As you enjoy the day and spend time with family, take a few minutes to think of ways you can honor moms and Mother Earth.
Green is more than just a color now. It is a term used to represent a new way to live, work and play that lessens the workload or impact on our Mother Earth. Sustainability, living today in a way that will allow us to continue to provide for the needs of future generations, has been a buzz word. But now folks are understanding how our quality of life depends on it.
We can live green and make a difference without sacrificing how we behave. We can make choices at the cash register by making choices in the products we buy. Informed consumers are changing the ways that businesses market themselves.
Green choices are not just good for the environment. They can save us money. High gas prices have resulted in increased costs of power, food and goods and services including our entertainment. Home buyers are shopping for homes closer to where they work so they don’t spend so much on fuel.
The price is only one part of a purchase decision. Now, we also are looking more closely at the maintenance costs. Car shoppers are reading the miles-per-gallon labels as much as the bottom-line price so they can get farther on a gallon of gas. Appliance shoppers are using the yellow-and-black energy-guide labels to see how much it will cost to operate a new washing machine, television or refrigerator.

orlandosentinel.com

Cooking and baking for my family is one of my joys as a mom. I take pride in preparing healthy, flavorful food for my husband, sons and daughter and love to pore over recipes. I have a cupboard full of cookbooks and a box overstuffed with recipes, but that doesn’t stop me from subscribing to a cooking magazine.
So I was delighted when Cooking Light, one of my favorite food magazines, in its May issue, interviewed four famous chefs and asked them to recall a few of the best dishes their mothers used to make. The chefs’ favorites varied from rubbed pork with apricot glaze and sauerkraut, to lemon cake to braised short ribs.
Although, I’ve never made any of those dishes, I can relate to the feelings they stir up in the chefs. Some of my best childhood memories of times spent with my own family are centered around food; summer picnics, holiday gatherings, harvest lunches and just plain, old family meals.
Like most children I never thought much about the effort on my mom’s part to plan, coordinate and cook those meals. They somehow just magically appeared, were consumed in a flash and the dirty dishes and a few crumbs were the only evidence that remained.
Now that I’m an adult, I marvel at how my mom could, seemingly effortlessly, and most often, single-handedly, prepare those huge spreads while still managing day-to-day family and farm responsibilities. Each year when I’m flying around the kitchen trying to cook and organize Thanksgiving dinner, I am in awe as I recall earlier years when the sunflower harvest was delayed and my mom prepared a meal for 25 people in between helping my dad and brother juggle trucks from field-to-field.
Reading the Cooking Light article got me to reminiscing again about the love that moms put in to meal making and about some of my own favorite dishes.

grandforksherald.com

Since 1915, we have set aside the second Sunday in May to honor our Mothers. Although there are several opinions as to how this day came about, the one that has lasted is the story of Anna Reeves Jarvis.
Jarvis asked her minister in West Virginia to give a sermon in memory of her mother in 1907, after her mother’s death in May of 1905. On the same Sunday, the minister at a church in Philadelphia, Pa., where Jarvis’s dad had formerly ministered, honored Mrs. Jarvis and all mothers with a special Mothers’ Day Service.
Jarvis began to write to congressmen, urging that they set aside a day to honor Mothers. In 1910, West Virginia Gov. Glasscock proclaimed a statewide Mother’s Day. The next year every state celebrated it. In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law a resolution making the second Sunday in May the national Mother’s Day.
Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis, Anna Jarvis’s mother, had been instrumental in forming the Mother’s Day Friendship Clubs to work with women to teach the importance of sanitation. The women who belonged to the group refused to take sides during the Civil War and provided nursing service and taught sanitation methods which have been accredited to saving many soldiers’ lives.
In 1872, Julia Ward Howe began the Mothers Day for Peace celebration in Boston. The day set aside for honoring peace, motherhood and womanhood was celebrated for 10 years.
There is also a claim by a service organization that one of their own was responsible for getting Mother’s Day as an official holiday.
Regardless of who gets the credit for bringing this day about, it is a good day to remember our mothers. Some will bring gifts, others will call, and yet others will write poems.
This year, Hallmark expects 155 million cards to be sent. They have been producing Mother’s Day cards since the early 1900s.

journal-advocate.com

Twelve grants totaling more than $17,000 were awarded by the Waukee Foundation at its quarterly meeting April 9. The district’s next two-hour early dismissal is April 30.
The following camps are scheduled for this summer. Registration forms are available on the district Web site www.waukee.k12.ia.us under “Waukee Activities Department.” For questions, call Fran at 987-2782.
Volleyball WIN Training: For those entering grades 8-12. Camp runs Wednesdays from June 4 to July 30 for grades 8-11. Cost is $20. Registration deadline is June 4. Camp runs Sundays for grades 11-12 from June 1 to July 27. Cost is $20. Registration is due June 1. If 11th- and 12th-graders attend and pay for the Wednesday training, Sundays are free.
B.E.S.T. Shooting School: For girls and boys entering grades 3-12. Runs consecutive Tuesdays June 10 through July 22. Does not meet July 1. Cost is $90.
Volleyball Camp: For girls entering grades 3-12. Registration is due May 30. Girls entering grades 3-5 meet June 16-18. Cost is $40. Girls entering grades 6-7 meet June 16-19. Cost is $50. Girls entering grades 8-9 (setters/defense and spec./libero) meet June 9-12. Cost is $50. Girls entering grades 8-9 (hitters camp) meet June 9-12. Cost is $50. Girls entering grades 9-12 (all-skills camp) meet June 9-12. Cost is $70. Girls entering grades 9-12 (all-skills camp) meet Aug. 11-14. Cost is $70. (The August camp is free if you pay and attend the June camp.) Registration deadline is July 25.
Girls’ Basketball Camp: Girls entering grades 2-3 meet July 14-17. Cost is $55. Girls entering grades 4-8 meet July 14-17. Cost is $65. Registration deadline is July 1.
Boys’ Basketball Camp: Boys entering grades 1-8 meet July 14-17. Cost is $75. Registration deadline is July 1.
Football Camp: Boys entering grades 7-12 meet Aug. 4-7. Cost is $60 before July 1, or $70 after.

desmoinesregister.com

By Tom Kane
A ‘Golden’ Moment … On Wednesday, April 30, State Senator Marty Golden, a member of the Senate Committee on Education, hosted the sixth annual “If I Were A State Senator For A Day” contest for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders in his district. I had the honor of being a judge on a panel of four during the contest at the Knights of Columbus on 13th Avenue and, let me tell you, it was one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make in a long while. These kids were brilliant and quite inspiring. Congratulations to winners Marie Frolich, OLG; Justin Lang, I.S. 238; and Amy Elsayed, McKinley Jr. High. See more on this story on page 5.
And Another Golden Moment … Congratulations to Brendan Michael Grady and Kelly Anne Dolan, who were engaged on May 3 after dinner at Chadwick’s. The big man had the ring brought out on a dessert plate with ‘Will you marry me?’ written in chocolate sauce. Happily, Kelly said ‘yes.’ They celebrated down at Pippin’s Pub where they were joined by Brendan’s mom Rita, sister Deirdre, his brother Patrick with his wife Lindsay, Kelly’s dad and her sister Patricia. Hosts Stephen Oliver and Anthony Bartholomeo bought drinks along with friends, John Chell, Patty O’Donnell and numerous others. Nicely done, B-man.
Happy Belated Birthday to my favorite Poly Prep basketball back-up center/right-handed pitcher, Sam Hasty, who turned 18 on May 4. After his Poly graduation, Hasty plans to be pitching for Rutgers University, which won the Division I championship last season. For more on Hasty, see Benchside Seats on page 10.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of Shoreview Golf Club… Paul J. Strafaci is the newly appointed president of the Shoreview Golf Club of the Dyker Beach Golf Course. Paul graduated from Bishop Ford, and has been playing golf since age four. In fact, he led Ford to a championship in his senior year. He is currently a detective second class in the NYPD. Congratulations, pal.

brooklyneagle.com

Siri Hustvedt’s work occupies a unique niche in the literary landscape. Her first novel, The Blindfold (1992) chronicles the unusual exploits of Iris Vegan, a young graduate student in New York City. The fractured narrative episodes are clearly representative of Iris’s identity issues. Siri’s second novel, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (1996), is set in Hustvedt’s home state of Minnesota and traverses the physical and emotional territory unique to the almost-but-not quite adult heroine as well as exploring the mysteries that permeate the small town of Webster. While these two novels are accomplished in their own right, What I Loved (2003) is a powerful and complex saga that charts the quarter of a century relationship between two families inexorably intertwined by the binary fates of love and loss. She has also published two books of essays, Yonder (1998) and A Plea for Eros (2006); as well as a collection of poetry, Reading to You (1983) and a book about painting, The Mysteries of the Rectangle (2005).
The Sorrows of an American, published by Henry Holt, opens with a mysterious letter found by Inga and Erik Davidsen amongst their late father’s papers. This message is the beginning of “the year of secrets” which unfolds to reveal myriad mysteries that threaten to capsize the lives and subsume the identities of Erik, Inga and their loved ones. Hustvedt builds on the themes of her earlier work while crafting a unique story that gives equal weight to the living and the voices of the dead that echo and define them.
This interview was conducted via e-mail in the middle of April.
The Sorrows of an American is a very moving novel of loss, both personal and universal in scope. How do you adequately convey the complexity of this theme without it overwhelming the carefully constructed narrative arc?

bookslut.com

Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest installment of the hit GTA video game franchise, racked up first-week sales of more than half a billion dollars, after selling over 6 million units globally.
Take-Two Interactive, the game’s publisher, on Wednesday announced that sales of its eagerly-awaited video game GTA IV, which is available for two consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3, reached more than $500 million in its first week of availability, exceeding the sales expectations of analysts who were estimating that some five million consumers would purchase the game in the first two weeks.
The New York-based company said it has sold more than 6 million copies of the graphically violent game globally since the game was released April 29. About 3.6 million units were sold on its opening day alone, worth a retail value of $310 million for combined sales of the standard $60 game and a $90 collector’s edition, the company said.
The sales figure of GTA IV that features improved graphics, new features and new gameplay, is an all-time record for any video game, movie or album, surpassing $300 million in global first-week sales last year for Microsoft’s “Halo 3″ game, and worldwide first-week movie box office totals of more than $400 million each last year for Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and Sony’s “Spider-Man 3.”
“Grand Theft Auto IV’s first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date,” Take-Two’s chairman Strauss Zelnick was quoted by Associated Press as saying.
“We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player’s experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well,” Zelnick continued. “We congratulate the entire Rockstar team on creating a must-have experience that takes the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new level.”

themoneytimes.com

T he history of Mother’s Day is centuries old and goes back to the times of ancient Greeks, who held festivities to honour Rhea, the mother of the gods. The early Christians celebrated the Mother’s festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent to honour Mary, the mother of Christ. Interestingly, later on, a religious order stretched the holiday to include all mothers, and named it as the Mothering Sunday. In 1872, Julia Ward Howe organised a day for mothers dedicated to peace. It is a landmark in the history of Mother’s Day.
In 1907, Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948), a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began a movement to set up a national Mother’s Day in honour of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She solicited the help of hundreds of legislators and prominent businessmen to create a special day to honour mothers. The first Mother’s Day observance was a church service honouring Anna’s mother. Anna handed out her mother’s favourite flowers, the white incarnations, on the occasion as they represent sweetness, purity, and patience. Anna’s hard work finally paid off in the year 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honour of mothers.
Slowly and gradually Mother’s Day became very popular and gift-giving activity increased. All this commercialisation of the Mother’s Day infuriated Anna as she believed that the day’s sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. Regardless of Jarvis’s worries, Mother’s Day has flourished in the United States and other countries. Actually, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year. Although Anna may not be with us, Mother’s Day lives on and has spread to various countries of the world. Many countries throughout the world celebrate Mother’s Day at various times during the year, but some such as Jamaica, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium also celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May.

jamaica-gleaner.com

T.L.L. Temple Memorial Library News
Mother’s Day in the United States is a holiday that celebrates motherhood in general and mother’s contributions to society. This holiday celebrated the second Sunday each May, is the result of a campaign by Anna Marie Jarvis. After the death of her mother on May 9, 1905, Mrs. Jarvis devoted her life to establishing Mother’s Day as a national and international holiday. Jarvis’s mother, named Ann Jarvis, had been active in Mother’s Day campaigns for peace, worker’s safety and health since the end of the American Civil War. As the custom of Mother’s Day spread, the emphasis shifted from the pacifism and reform movements to a general appreciation of mothers. This year Mother’s Day is on May 11th. (www.wikipedia.og) Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers.
The school year is coming to a close and summer vacation will be here soon. While parents are out looking for something fun and meaningful for your kids to do this summer, don’t forget your local library. Our library offers the Texas Summer Reading Club for kids’ ages 3- 11 and Texas Teens Read for teen’s ages 12-18. These programs encourage kids and teens to read throughout the summer through incentives and rewarding activities. Participation in these programs is absolutely free to the public. Registration will begin on May 19, 2008 here at the library. For more information contact us at 936-829- 5497.
If you haven’t seen the old library building in a while, you would be surprised. Everyday it is growing and changing by leaps and bounds. There are a lot more walls up since it was mentioned in last week’s column. Rooms and offices are starting to take shape on the inside of the structure as well. This past week saw the removal of the sidewalk and covering on the south end of the building. What a glorious sight! We can’t wait for the finished product so we can move back home.

dibollfreepress.com