All for love

Breakfast in bed. Handpicked or store-bought bouquet of flowers. A macaroni-embroidered greeting card. An informal get-together in the living room. Dinner at a restaurant.

Over this past weekend, mothers throughout Bay St. George and beyond were honoured by their families in all sorts of ways.

For better or worse, they put up with dirty diapers, 4 a.m. feedings, tears, countless loads of laundry, meal preparations, shopping mall tantrums, runny noses, dirty knees, homework, after-school activities, sleepovers, teenage crushes, driving lessons, and the list goes on.

What do they ask in return? Nothing more than love. And while the full extent might be difficult to ascertain, there is no denying the overwhelming influence a mothers has in her child's life. For no matter how old we get, there is nothing quite like a mother's love and inspiration.

Mother's Day has just passed us by, but there's never a wrong time to tell your mother how much she is loved and appreciated.

And in case you might need a little inspiration, here are some other thoughts on mothers:

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. - Irish Proverb;

If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much. - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis;

A man's work is from sun to sun, but a mother's work is never done. - Unknown;

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. -Chinese Proverb;

Who is getting more pleasure from this rocking, the baby or me? - Nancy Thayer;

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not. - James Joyce;

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. - Abraham Lincoln;

A mother understands what a child does not say. - Unknown;

When I was younger, my mom said, 'I totally believe that you're going to be a singer and a famous songwriter. But just in case, Stevie, I need you to take typing and I need you to take shorthand. And if you go to college, we'll pay for everything.' And I went. - Stevie Nicks.