One of my dearest friends, Sandy, has an almost 18 year old daughter, Brittany, who suffers from a rare genetic disease called NBIA.  When Brittany was diagnosed about 10 years ago, Sandy immediately became an expert on all things related to NBIA. She took charge of EVERYTHING and held on to a hope that one day there might be a cure.

…Brittany.

I love being with Sandy when she is talking with one of Brittany’s many doctors (and there are a lot of them…just add “gists” or “pists” to something like, pulma, neuro or thera and they have been there). She tells them what is what…

…for Brittany.

She is the best mom for Brittany and fighter of NBIA. She keeps lists of medications, lists of surgeries, lists of symptoms, takes pictures, records coughing, breathing, sleeping patterns. She gives oxygen to Brittany when needed, suctions, lifts her to use the bathroom…and if you can believe it…her house is spotless! All this organization…

…for Brittany.

She is a fundraiser for NBIA. She attends meetings, events, seminars. She is on the phone fighting the fight…

…for Brittany.

But what I love best about Sandy is she is Brittany’s mom first and foremost. She is with her at night when she cannot sleep. She is at her side 24-7 to give Brittany her many long feedings, to wipe her chin, to keep her from “biting (her dysontia causes her jaw muscles to clamp down on her tongue)”, to make her laugh, to keep her happy, and to even tell Brittany to stop being so sassy (and Brittany still has sass)…

…for Brittany.

Both she and Rich continue to give Brittany experiences such as trips to Disneyworld, California, visits to Texas to see her Grandparents, and cruises. They are not sitting idling by waiting…they are living.

…for Brittany.

And with their faith, they know anything is possible. No, not easy. Not one bit. But worth every bit of hard…

…for Brittany.

Think, Click, Be…

Willing.

Article by Heather Porter, Billion Clicks contributor

You may remember in the beginning of this month I had this fabulous plan to send letters and cards to many of the woman who I think are great mothers and who I see doing great motherly things.

Then this happened:

That is a bowl of chicken noodle soup, empty jello and saltines to treat the stomach flu.  It detoured my plans drastically. The fact that I got cards in the mail to my own moms was a miracle. So my stamp book still has lots of stamps in it and it kind of makes me mad! How dare you stomach flu! You ruined my plans!

But WAIT I AM A MOM!! Detour is my middle name and flexibility my game!
Doesn’t this happen to all of us? The best ideas are thwarted by life. The trick is to make the detour the better idea!

In my particular situation the stomach flu meant I canceled everything and basically got treated like it was Mother’s Day for a whole week?!  My 5 year still asks ” Are you feeling any better mommy? I can make you lunch?” Oh my blessings! I could just sit with my kiddos on the couch and read books or watch movies (how many we watched doesn’t matter, right?)  The detour sure was bumpy but the love I felt through out it, is something I wouldn’t trade for a single day of good health!

During this detour I had some lovely neighbors bring over dinner for my family and even leave cold jello and sprite on my doorstep. Now I have even more people to write warm, fuzzy cards too! (click, click, click)

So maybe you are like me and took a detour this month in appreciating mothers. Get back on track with me and show some love to the special women in your life!

Think. Click. Be..Flexible!

Article by Shasta Howard, Billion Clicks Contributor

 ”All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.”
Abraham Lincoln

Mom Power!
Sisters: Stacy, Shannon,Sara, Lisa and Linda – Mothers of 18 children

I am convinced that if we put mother’s in charge of the world we would solve global warming by making world leaders wear a coat to work, plan a pot luck to ensure world peace, send those who can’t play nice to time out until they say their sorry and agree to play well with other countries, plan menus that would take existing food and feed the planet, cut coupons to balance the budget and have all our dirty laundry done by nap time.

Historically mothers have used their super powers to create homes filled with love. Mother’s go without food to make sure their children are fed, give up fancy duds and dinner out so there is enough money for activities and sell anything that isn’t nailed down, or work  to earn money for education. Girls take off your tiara and get a cape because you can fly!

Sara and Erin taking life seriously

For two years the most beautiful piece of scrap granite sat in my shed waiting for my busy husband to find time to install it. Gradually my counter developed a wave, a sort of mountain and a split. I kept a very heavy cutting board on it.

I was asked to help lead a week long church camp for 100 girls. When camp week arrived I left my sister Sara and my oldest married daughter Erin behind with their collective children and my visiting parents. I sighed deeply, and turned my back on all the undone repairs and housework as I drove away to camp.

Sara AKA Handy Mandy

After a sleepless week at camp I returned home exhausted. Strangely, everyone met me at the door smiling expectantly and took me to the kitchen. The kids could hardly contain themselves. I walked into the kitchen and burst into beauty queen tears of joy. The girls had installed my counter tops; Sara and Erin, our unbeatable team, two moms who can do anything together, laughing and giggling the entire time. Two moms doing an act of kindness while teaching their children, by example, that moms can do amazing things.

Trish and Erin

Thanks to their ability to fix their own brakes, build chicken coops, grow organic gardens, assemble anything and program electronic equipment we are all blessed. Their ingenuity, creativity and fearless efforts have enabled them to stay home and spend quality time with their children. Their vast knowledge has become legendary.

Erin has a nick name in our house. We call her, “Google Erin.” When we need a spot removed, or to make our own laundry soap for less than a dollar a gallon, we call Google Erin. When we needed “some assembly required,” we call Sara.

Stacy loves children. After having three children, she and her husband felt there was one more soul missing from their family. Because she was unable to have another baby, they went in search of Tara. Tara belongs to us. She may have come via adoption, but she is ours, all of ours.

Stacy, Tara and family 2013

Stacy wanted to make sure that Tara knew something about her heritage. We are all pale, pasty and blond so we love Tara’s ebony beauty and silky black hair. She is a beautiful girl who loves to dance. Stacy ran the Davis County Parents of African American Children. She hosted parties and events in order to share as much culture and heritage as possible with Tara and her family.

Stacy always tries to do positive and good things for all her children. There is no task too large for Stacy, and nothing she won’t do to bring the world to her family.

Tara serving in Mexico

Recently Stacy, excited to show share her love of other cultures, planned and took 14 of her closest relatives to Mexico. She also planned a day of service in a local village, teaching her children the importance of loving and sacrificing for others.

Lisa is another one of the girls, a super heroin. Lisa cuts coupons and garage sales like a professional. She makes her own lotions and soaps, which she sells online. No one saves money like Lisa. Lisa is great at finding treasure and selling it for a very hefty profit. Her children wear the latest and greatest clothes and have the best gadgets, because Lisa’s garage sale and thrift store shopping powers are epic.

Lisa scores again

Linda sings and the Heavens rejoice. She plays the piano and shares her talents whenever she is asked. She taught her children and many other children music. When my daughter thought she couldn’t sing, Linda taught her that she could, and helped her find her personal worth. Mothers that take time to share their super powers have super kids. Linda’s children have the gift of music, thanks to mom. Her son will be in a movie released this May.

These are just a few of the powerful women in my little corner of the world. Look around you and get to know the secret super powers of mothers in your world. Don’t forget to look in the mirror and recognize all the good things you do for your family. Everything you sacrifice and do in an effort to raise healthy happy children, makes the world a better place to be for all of us. You may not wear a cape, but mothers have the power to change the world one child at a time.

Think… click…. Be…….

……powerful and know you are amazing

…….by Shannon Symonds, Billion Clicks Contributor

I remember our family Christmas tree years ago.  Most of us were teenagers and very funny clever ones at that.  My brothers owned a lot of hats.  A lot.

One of them hung his hat on our Christmas tree.  Each day another hat or two joined the tree.  More and more and more hats.  Between the three of them the tree filled up quickly!  Some were dirty, some were fluorescent orange.  To my mother it was funny at first, but then it became ugly and a bit too much.  Sometime before Christmas morning she had them take the hats down.

Fast forward 10 years and my sweet mother has shed tears over having her boys take the hats off the tree.  What she wouldn’t give now to have her house full of annoying- Christmas- tree- decorating- challenged-messy-teenage boys!  She misses the “hat” tree and everything that came along with it.  Late nights of worry, ironing dress shirts, haircut after haircut after haircut, loud music, wrestling, harassing, girls calling, car dings and dents.

It comes with the job.  A job that sometimes feels never-ending, and then, all too quickly, it ends.  Or at least those aspects of the job end, but not the loving and caring and worrying.

I choose to click the “hats” around my house, that someday I will miss.  I will have regrets no doubt, but hopefully I’ll have less if I focus on the bigger picture and appreciate the here and now.  So today I’ve clicked……

The paper airplane in my entryway window, that I cannot reach and I’m not sure I ever will.

The hole in the wall from my 8 year old’s head.  He ran from across the room to land “peacefully” onto the bean bag.  Yeah, he didn’t land “peacefully.”

The snake in my 11 year old’s room that I hate hate hate, but he loves loves loves.  I’m still thanking my niece for drawing his name for Christmas and giving him the gift that keeps on giving.

The 25 hundred bazillion cups they get out each day.  BTW, these were accumulated between the short hours of 8pm-7am next morning.  Any suggestions?

Wet towels on the floor after a shower.  Every day.  The reaching hand is a last minute attempt by my teenager to “clear the evidence”

There’s more.  So much more.  And some are quite pleasant.  Like the hugs and kisses and thank you’s.  Each of them remind me that a child lives here. My home is graced with children.  I am a mother.  I am a blessed woman.

Think. Click. Be…

grateful for the messes

Article by Rebecca Anderson, Billion Clicks Contributor

Dear Mother,

I saw a quote the other day that read, “In life we aren’t given an instruction booklet, we are given mothers.”  My thoughts quickly turned to you, dear Mother.

You taught me how to love.  You showed me patience. You gave me knowledge. You snuggled me, hugged me, held me and kissed me.  You always listened. You never judged.  Because of your example, I am the mother I am today.

And even now (at my older age), you continue to let me be your daughter and seek “instruction” as I instruct my little ones.

Thank you for being my wise mother.

I love you, always.

Think, Click, Be…

Ever Grateful for Your Mother.

Article by Heather Porter, Billion Clicks Contributor

My daughter has the ability to go from this

To this in about 5 seconds

Which leads me to this in 1 second

Oh please tell me I am not the only who has had a day like this?

Despite my shock what the day really is about is this :”Pardon the mess but we are busy making memories”.

I know motherhood is hard work! I know its mundane, unpaid, repetitive and thankless. But it is also FUN and MESSY!!!

Enjoy yourself and enjoy motherhood! Get out there and play with the sidewalk chalk all over the driveway and let a popsicle drip down your arm as you eat it in the gleeming sun. Go back to when you were a child and think of all the fun things you did and do them as an adult. There is no law saying that you can’t! You’re kids will laugh and love your more for it. (This goes for the grandmas out there too. Grandkids love to see their grandparents in water balloon fights!)

Messy really is Fun!

Think. Click. Be…MESSY and FUN!

Article by Shasta Howard, Billion Clicks Contributor

Baby Madeline by Haley Miller Captures Photography

This Mother’s Day, when I knew I would be writing for you, the amazing women who are Billion Clicks blog readers, I pondered on all the great and famous mothers in history. Then I asked myself, who was the greatest mother of all?  Here is my humble opinion. You may disagree, belong to another faith or not know the story, but to me, the greatest mother in the world was barely older than a girl. She was from humble circumstances and raised several children, but her first child was the Son of God.

When God sent his Son to show us the way to live, who did he choose to be his Son’s mother?  She was a young woman of no nobility, no notable wealth, fame or special talent.  The scriptures simply tell us she was virtuous, chaste, highly favored of God and her name was Mary.  Mary tells us about herself in the book of Luke when she says,

“….My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”

But it is her acts of selflessness that speaks volumes. She was asked to endure public shame for carrying the Savior, to deliver in a stable and to flee to Egypt for her Son’s safety. I don’t ever recall reading in any passage that she complained or put her own needs ahead of the Saviors.

We aren’t privy to the small private acts of love that must have happened between mother and Son on a daily basis. We can only imagine the love she felt holding a sweet smelling baby and wonder what she thought as she looked into his eyes, or if she worried about his safety.

Trish meets Elliott

My favorite story of Mary is a story that tells so much about her relationship with her son. It takes place at a wedding. She needs to serve wine and they have run out. The part of the story that touches my heart is when the wine runs out and she asks the Savior for help. He replies, “Women, what have I to do with thee? My time has not yet come.” And then he does exactly what his mother needs, as any loving Son would. She, in absolute faith and sure knowledge of who her son is, instructs the servants to do whatever he says. The Savior has the servants fill pots with water. He then turns water into wine.

I love this story, because I have sons. I can visualize myself calling either of my very tall, amazing boys and asking them to change my flat tire. They would drop whatever they were doing to help their old mom and then shake their heads, and with crooked smiles say, “Mom, what have I to do with you!” Then they would hug me and tell me they love me. I trust them to love me and to do what needs to be done, because I have always done what needed to be done for them.

What makes a mother great? Is it doing great things? Or is it the daily small things we do with a pure heart? Is it the act of always putting our children’s needs first? Is it the way we serve those around us day in and day out? Are we not all like Mary, loving our sweet children with an unbelievably deep love? From the moment we look at them we are willing to go without, become homeless, or whatever it takes to take care of them.  We try to always be there for them.

When God sent his son, he chose humble circumstances and a dedicated virtuous woman who lived an average life. He chose a place where a child could learn to be king. It was a place that true greatness and love could be created and felt in the most modest circumstances. Children grow best when they are nurtured and fed with simple day to day acts of service and love.

A great mother is not made by one great act. Great mothers are created by the small things, the daily acts of love like being there for breakfast, packing a sack lunch with a love note, showing up at a baseball game and reading bedtime stories. It is in the day to day moments worth clicking for that make us great. Positive acts of service, like small deposits, build great fortunes of love. 

Think, Click, be great by doing small acts of love…

Elliott swings with Mom

 …….by Shannon Symonds, Billion Clicks Contributor

I think it’s pretty wonderful being a woman.

We are built with the same engines for the most part.  There are similarities that drive us. The main similarity in my humble opinion, is that we are by nature, nurturers.

So I believe as we celebrate mothers, we should be celebrating nurturers.  And it doesn’t take official “motherhoodom” to be a nurturer.

I know that  long before I was a mother, I was a nurturer.  I’m the youngest of six children.  I “mothered” my baby dolls. I “mothered” the children I babysat.  I “mothered” nieces and nephews.

And you would think that being a busy mother of four would keep my hands full.  But no.  I still find time to love my preschoolers, neighbor children, and any baby I can get my hands on!

Now that I have a houseful of my own children, I appreciate even more all of the “mothers” in my children’s life.  Grandparents, teachers, neighbors, aunts, and friends to name a few.

What would I do without the nurturing neighbor that noticed my precocious kindergartner did not get on the bus after dad dropped him off?  He hid from the bus until it came and went.  Then he headed home to an empty house on a cold snowy morning.  I’m so thankful for a neighbor whose heart had room for one more child.  She took him to school and checked him in for me.  I didn’t know until after school that she was the only reason he made it that day.

What about my son’s elementary school teacher?  When my son tells me he loves his teacher because she makes him feel like he can do ANYTHING, I love her too.

And grandmothers?  What kind of a world would we live in without grandmothers?  Both my mother and mother-in-law are additional blessings in the lives of my children.

My high school girlfriends are second mother’s to my children.  They held them as infants, and cheer them on still today.  I love their children as well.

Scout leaders who show up week after week to teach my son the value of hard work, preparedness, and cooperation.

Who has had a hand in nurturing you?

Who have you nurtured?

Nurturers are mothers.  Help us celebrate mother’s day this month by clicking for the nurturers!

Think. Click. Be.

Nurturing

Article by Rebecca Anderson, Billion Clicks Contributor

Cancer. I really don’t like it. There is nothing about it that makes me want to even touch my clicker, let alone, click it.

But within every cancer’s ugly diagnosis, lies an innocent, wonderful, AMAZING…

Friend.

Spouse.

Child.

Son.

Daughter.

Father.

Mother.

Today I took my dear friend, Kimmy to her third round of Chemo.  She is a wife, a mother of two young children, a sister, daughter and friend.  As I went along with her on the 4-hour bi-monthly journey, I witnessed a miracle.

I saw a person radiating positivity, hope, concern (for others) and a will to fight.  She entered the hospital with a spring in her step. As she approached the check in desk, she greeted the woman there by name, asked her how she was doing. She giggled with me as we were led to her “pod” where she would receive the three hours of meds.  She waved at doctors and nurses. She hugged other patients…she knew them all by name.

Before she drifted off to sleep she insisted I run along and get lunch (and made sure I didn’t bring in anything with onions so I wouldn’t cause discomfort to the other patients as they were nauseous from their medication).

When I returned, I sat next to Kimmy. She was sleeping peacefully. She looked so beautiful. My thoughts wandered to a statement she made as she hugged me earlier that morning (after seeing me worried about her), “Heather, I am a friend first. Cancer is way down the list.”

We left just as we had come…Kimmy stopping every few feet to thank a nurse, give encouragement to a fellow patient and reminding me what, no who, should always come first in our lives:

Friend.

Spouse.

Child.

Son.

Daughter.

Father.

Mother.

Even in our deepest despair, we can find a positive “click” (or two or three…) that will keep our pain at bay.

Think, Click, Be…

Reminded.

Article written by Heather Porter, Billion Clicks contributor.

“It takes a village to raise a child” -  A Chinese proverb

While a woman traditionally becomes a mother with their own first child, so many other women become a mom when their niece or nephew needs a shoulder to cry on, when one of their parents passes away, when a neighborhood child gets lost, or when a teenager needs a mentor.

Think about the crossing guard who guides her little ducklings safely across the street to the school.

What about the cashier who hands your kids stickers or candy at the grocery store check out to help maintain sanity.

Then there is the sweet neighborhood grandma who sits in her driveway and watches all the kids get off the bus safely in front of her house.

All the teachers at school who don’t just grade papers but teach children about integrity, respect, love and hope.

It doesn’t matter whether they are single, married, divorced, widowed, young or old. What we need to see is that they are all mothers to our children. Even if it is for a fleeting moment or your child’s entire lifetime.

So this month take the time to say thank you to these women in you and your children’s life. Let them know specifically what they do that makes them so wonderful!

I am going to buy a book of stamps and try to use them all before the month is up by sending them to women who have been mothers in me and my children’s lives.

To start off this month of gratitude for mothers, begin with yourself! You are the leader of the village in your house after all!

Article by Shasta Howard, Billion Clicks Contributor