{"id":300,"date":"2012-05-01T05:17:27","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T09:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=300"},"modified":"2012-05-01T09:03:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T13:03:31","slug":"working-or-stay-at-home-she-still-my-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/05\/working-or-stay-at-home-she-still-my-mom.html","title":{"rendered":"Working or stay-at-home, she’s still my mom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"For more than 20 years, I was a stay-at-home mom. \u00a0During those years, I wrote five books. \u00a0Two of them were best sellers. \u00a0Together they sold over a million copies. \u00a0I was an award-winning, free-lance writer working with several different magazines. \u00a0Additionally, I was the room mother for my children’s school classes.I baked cookies and cakes for every event at our church. \u00a0I worked at the Fall Festival and did children’s theatre. \u00a0I held a weekly Bible study for the neighborhood children. \u00a0I taught Bible classes for every age and strip. \u00a0I did and taught crafts. \u00a0I sewed. \u00a0For years, I made all my own clothes and the clothes for my daughters. \u00a0On occasion, I even cleaned my house and did the laundry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I enjoyed every part of these various tasks, except cleaning the house and doing the laundry. \u00a0Most of my friends who were also housewives were even more creative and productive than I was. \u00a0In short, we were the undocumented workers of the day. \u00a0We did what others were not able or did not want to do. \u00a0Only difference, we did our work for free–sensing a greater calling than mere housework. \u00a0We were molding the next generation of children. \u00a0Unfortunately, we usually garnered less respect than the undocumented workers do today.<\/p>\n

Understand, my mother was a working mom. \u00a0With my father, she ran the family business, Gresham’s Ice Cream Parlor. \u00a0My sister, brother and I walked to the shop after school. \u00a0We did our homework propping our books and writing paper on tables where the teenagers gathered after school to listen to the jukebox and eat snacks. \u00a0After dark, we made pallets on the chest freezers where we slept until the shop closed.<\/p>\n

Whether working mothers or stay-at-home moms, the greatest task of every mother must be embeding Christ-like\u00a0value into our children. Abraham Lincoln said,\u00a0“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”<\/p>\n

Though poor, Ida Stover was determined to go to college. She scraped together enough money to attend Lane College in Lecompton, Kan., where she met fellow student David Eisenhower. She was known as a firm but gentle disciplinarian and was deeply religious. It is said she once won a prize for memorizing 1,365 Bible verses. As a pacifist, she was not in favor of her son attending West Point but decided to let him go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She was the mother of Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States.<\/p>\n

Mary Litogot grew up on a farm, and met her future husband, William Ford, when he came to work on their farm. She was 12 and he was 26. They married nine years later. Mary was self-sufficient and a diligent worker. Henry (Ford)<\/em> later attributed his clean factories to her belief in cleanliness. She encouraged his interest in machines early on. He later said, “I have tried to live my life as my mother would have wished. I believe I have done, as far as I could, just what she hoped for me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mary Ford was Henry Ford’s mother.<\/p>\n

Some of the women I have the most respect for are those courageous mothers whose children are born with intellectual disabilities. \u00a0At the birth of their children, the dreams and aspirations they have nurtured all their lives dies. \u00a0But their hope does not die. \u00a0Resilient and brave, they work and teach. \u00a0Step by minute step, they struggle and minister to the little ones God has placed in their homes and hearts. Yes, the moms who harbor future presidents and great inventors are wonderful. \u00a0However, \u00a0it is the mothers who daily work to bring their little ones with disabilities into their fullest potential that I honor and respect the most.<\/p>\n

As a mother, what was your greatest accomplishment? \u00a0What about your mother? \u00a0How did she inspire you?<\/p>\n

Quoted information from Mothers: 100 Mothers of the Famous and Infamous, <\/em>edited by Richard, Ehrlich, Paddington Press, Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For more than 20 years, I was a stay-at-home mom. \u00a0During those years, I wrote five books. \u00a0Two of them were best sellers. \u00a0Together they sold over a million copies. \u00a0I was an award-winning, free-lance writer working with several different magazines. \u00a0Additionally, I was the room mother for my children’s school classes.I baked cookies and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,40,186,49,10,67,12,4,41],"tags":[21,688,696,699,701,691,69,692,700,74],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-inspirational","category-mothers-day","category-religion","category-simple-truths","category-spirituality","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-faith","tag-inspiration","tag-inspirational","tag-mothers","tag-religion","tag-spirituality","tag-stay-at-home-mom"],"yoast_head":"\nWorking or stay-at-home, she's still my mom - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/05\/working-or-stay-at-home-she-still-my-mom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Working or stay-at-home, she's still my mom - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For more than 20 years, I was a stay-at-home mom. \u00a0During those years, I wrote five books. \u00a0Two of them were best sellers. \u00a0Together they sold over a million copies. \u00a0I was an award-winning, free-lance writer working with several different magazines. \u00a0Additionally, I was the room mother for my children’s school classes.I baked cookies and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/05\/working-or-stay-at-home-she-still-my-mom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-01T09:17:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-05-01T13:03:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/I-%E2%99%A5-Baking-by-Libertad-Leal.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. 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