Historic school house ~ Fort Scott, KS (all photography by Marylin Warner)
Hi, Mom,
It’s our favorite time of year again, when the air is crisp and the leaves begin to change. About this time each September, you’d begin asking what special dinner I wanted for my birthday, what cake I wanted you to make for dessert, and if there was a special something I wanted as a present. We didn’t make a huge deal of birthdays, but you always made them special. Because of your sudden spiking blood pressure during pregnancy–the doctors now call it pre-eclampsia–I was delivered quickly by C-section, more than 3 weeks early. You and I decided it was because I was determined to be born in September; I cut it pretty close, taking my first breath on the evening of the 30th.
Okay, Mom, just for the fun of it, during the last weeks of September there are some choices to make. We’ve already missed National Cream-filled Donut Day on the 14th, which Dad would have loved, and Make A Hat Day on the 15th (which you tried once, but we won’t talk about it, right?) Today, Sept. 16, there are many choices: Collect Rocks Day, Mayflower Day, National PlayDoh Day, and National Women’s Friendship Day. And tomorrow, the 17th, one of the choices is Wear Sneakers to Work Day. How’s that sound?
To make things simple, how about limiting the choices to food options: the 17th of September is National Apple Dumpling Day; the 18th is Cheeseburger Day; the 19th is Butterscotch Pudding Day; and the 20th is National Punch Day (we’ll assume this is the drink and not hitting). This year Oktoberfest begins on the 22nd, and the 26th is Johnny Appleseed Day in case apple sauce sounds good. The 29th is Confucius Day, and you always used to have fun with fortune cookies. On the 30th, there are more choices than just my birthday: Yom Kippur; National Mud Pack Day; oh, and on this day in 1902, Rayon was patented, so we could celebrate that, too. It can get silly, but it’s fun.
Tonight as I was working on the computer, Oldies But Goodies were playing on i-Tunes. Bobby Vinton was singing a song: “…so let us make a pledge to meet in September…and seal it with a kiss…” It made me smile. For years we’ve done that, meeting in September, on or close to my actual birthday. I drive from Colorado for my regular visit with you in Kansas, but I bring cupcakes so you can have a choice of flavors. When I sing the Happy Birthday song, you sing along. You usually ask if it’s your birthday (which we celebrated in July). I tell you it’s OUR birthday, because it is.
The date of my birth was September 30th, but it’s actually a special day for both of us. It’s the day we became Mother and Daughter, and that’s something worth celebrating.
I love you, Mom. See you soon…with cupcakes. Marylin 
Cupcake choices: Maple with Bacon (!), Chocolate Mint, Black Forest, and Peanut Butter Special
Things I Want To Tell My Mother 
I love that you are sharing these treasured memories. If Inhad a vote it would be PlayDoh & Bacon Maple cupcakes. I got to play with PlayDoh, for the first time in years, with my daughter & her dad this past week & it was so mch fun. Bacon just enhances every good thing in life. 😉
Even after the real PlayDoh was around, my mom found a recipe and made a version that smelled so good the kids kept eating their projects!
I’m with you on the Bacon Maple cupcakes…they are great!
Wow Marylin,this is just lovely! Many good returns on your coming birthday and visit to Kansas 🙂
Thank you so much. I’m getting excited, and I hope the little bakery near her assisted living still has unusual cupcake choices. You can always tell when Mom and I have been enjoying celebration cupcakes–our teeth are stained with various colors!
I love this post, just truly lovely! You know my daughter’s birtday is also in September and is coming up next week!
Take Care,
Daniela
September daughters are very special, Daniela. Tell your daughter Happy Birthday from me!
Thank you so much, I will -:)!
Daniela
Hi Marylin:
I signed up again because I didn’t receive this post. Ugh. Technology.
Hopefully, now I’ll get your posts.
Have a happy Sunday.
Tracy
Oh, Tracy, sometimes the sign up is reliable. Other times, not so much. Thanks for trying again. Happy Sunday to you, too.
Happy Birthday Mom & Daughter, a special day.What a tender story.
Thank you, from both of us.
Moms always made birthdays special, didn’t they? When I was little it was always with hats and candy dishes and some sort of theme. One year for my dad’s birthday (the 4th) we had a Beatles Yellow Submarine birthday for him. And the effort she went through to make that funky submarine for the centerpiece and all the decorations surrounding that album! OY! Good times!
I hope you have a great birthday with great memories of past ones!
You’re a pro at great birthday parties! I love the Yellow Submarine centerpiece story. These are the memories…
Who knew there were so many food-related days? I’m just sorry I missed the cream-filled donut day.
Nice post. I like your style of writing these to your moher.
Thanks, Carrie. Like you, I’m sorry we missed the cream-filled donut day. I don’t know who makes the decisions about which days to celebrate, but I doubt there’s a National “Day” celebration undercover force watching. I vote we both choose another day and celebrate with donuts!
I jumped the gun. I just had a donut an hour ago. Naughty, I know.
My mom’s birthday was July 5th. Of course we always celebrated July 4th. 🙂 Never forget mom when that holiday comes every year.
You’re so right. These are the memories our minds hold on to forever. For you, July 4th will always be special in ways the rest of us can’t understand.
Happy Birthday, Marylin!!!
Sam, Marie and Willow wish you a wonderful day, with many more to come!!!
Aw, I love hearing from Missouri! Thank you, Sam, Marie and Willow.
Marie and Willow, I just have to ask: Did you both end up entering the Real Simple writing contest?
Bobby Vinton’s song always fits – no matter the year. Have a great week: cupcakes, birthdays, and favorite songs
Thank you, Karen. How can we not have a great time with brightly colored cupcake icing on our smiling mouths? Mom may not remember exactly who I am or why we’re singing and eating sweets, but for a while she’ll have fun listening to stories about someone she usually doesn’t realize is actually her. We do the best we can.
I remember. But you go for the singing and treasure what peeks out around the corners of this tragic disease
I will. Thank you.
Enjoy your visit, Marylin. Even though your mom is “absent” in some ways you are blessed to still have her. And happy birthday early!!
Thanks, Nancy. I’ve already planned that we’ll take an adventure to the pond near the patio of her building. This time of year it should be beautiful, and even though she hates to use the wheelchair, I think she’ll like the ducks. Other than that, we’ll just takes things as they come.
Very sweet post. Funny I was just talking to my father and wishing him a Happy Birthday. He was complaining about getting old I figured out how old he would be in dog years 511 that seemed to cheer him up a little bit. We had a good laugh. Enjoy your visit with you Mom.
What a good idea ~ dog years! We always used to debate if a dog’s age was 7 years to one human year, or 5. Whether her age would be 658 years or 470 years, it’s still impressive. I’m often surprised at the things from the past that she does remember, and we always had dogs, so she might laugh at this.
Oh, I hope it’s mudpacks and bacon-maple cupcakes! My mother’s birthday is September 20. She’s been in heaven since 1999, but I still celebrate her birthday, usually by cooking up either a batch of fried chicken or spaghetti, using her recipes. I have her old cookbook that has her handwriting all through it along with grease stains and dried cake batter. Love it.
Oh, Darla, that’s wonderful, fixing one of her recipes to celebrate her birthday each year. What a delicious way to keep the memories alive. Your descriptions of her old cookbook are vivid and touching ~ her handwriting stained with grease and dried cake batter. What a lovely tribute to her.
What a beautiful post. I love to read posts and articles like this as it helps me to make the most of my mother who is almost 80 – which I do – hope you have a lovely time next time you see your mom.
I see her next week, so I’m gearing up with food plans and easy activities, places I can take her in her wheelchair. Your mom is still young ~ enjoy doing things together now that she might not be able to do (or remember, as is my mom’s case) later on. Thanks for stopping by. I enjoy the creativity of your blog!
Thank you – I hope you have a wonderful time next week – I’ve noticed with my mother that she enjoys her food more and more, she has always enjoyed it but lately, it is the utmost importance. Do you take yummy things to share with your mom? Thanks for the lovely comment.
Somehow I missed this post earlier. ell, have a Hapy Birthday! Cupcakes are just grand–safe journeys through the winter as weather changes here on the plains.
Thank you, Alice. Cupcakes are the new chocolate mousse, according to the manager at the deli bakery. When I choose assortments for Mom, I go for the tall-icing, bright colors. She seems to really like those, but we wear the tell-tale stains for hours!
Oktoberfest begins on the 22th? As in September 22? Am I the only one to be troubled by this? It’s just like when you see Halloween decorations for sale in August. Apple dumplings are really yummy and today is the day!
I know. That threw me, too. “Oktober”fest beginning in September? So I checked a second source. Yep. Both said the official beginning date this year for Oktoberfest is Sept. 22, but I guess both could be wrong. And maybe it goes on for a month??? So I’m with you ~ it’s time for apple dumplings! And since my mom has never been a beer drinker, I’m guessing she’d choose the butterscotch pudding choice…and just wait and have birthday cupcakes.
Happy (early) birthday to you! Slide me over a cupcake 🙂
Hey, I would if I could. Can we send maple cupcakes with bacon through the internet?
Great post Marylin and you are so right, there is always something worth celebration and parents and children should always be right up at the top of the list. And, as for food choices, can I have the butterscotch pudding, pppppplllleeeeaaaaasssssseeee? Not a big pudding fan, although the size of my belly may suggest otherwise, but the silky smoothness of that one has always been irresistible for me.
Happy birthday for Sunday my sweet and have a great visit with Mom XXXX
Thank you so much, Tom; we will have a great celebration. The deli where I sometimes get goodies for my mom actually makes butterscotch pudding, creamy and smooth with sliced almonds sprinkled on top. Much better than I could make, so I’ll stop and get Mom some on my way to stay with her. But I’ll have to get different kinds of cupcakes, too. Nothing says Happy like colorful icing stains on smiling faces!
Thank you very much, Marilyn, for coming by my blog. I too have an old mother. She is 101 years old. And for the last two years she’s been suffering from dementia. I didn’t know what that was, until she got it. I always thought that demented, or dementia meant ‘stupid’. But I soon learned that what it meant, was just a loss of memory. Of course, this is confusing, and quite a burden to bear, but my mother has been an inspiration to me, in the way she has dealt with her handicap. And it still is a great pleasure for me to visit with her, which I usually do a few times a week. She has the same personality that she had all her life. After my father died, about a decade ago, she asked to go to an old age home. But last year, she told her children she was tired of that, and has since moved back into her private residence, and life goes on. I wish you many happy days with your old mother.
Thank you so much for sharing this. 101, and still clear enough to decide where she wants to live–to me, that is astounding. Often my mother is unsure who I am or where she is, but there are other times when she has moments of clarity and she knows exactly who we both are–mother and daughter–and it’s a delightful time. Life does go on, and we try to make the most of it.