{Happy Mother's Day!}

{my Mum at a lemonade stand}

The most important women in my life are all mothers. In a perfect world, I'd host a tea to celebrate them & their marvelous jobs at being mothers. However, we are all spread out across the globe, so this blog is the closest thing that will come to a Mother's Day tea.

{the kind of tea I'd like to host! via thecelebrationshoppe}

 I am thinking particularly of my dear Mum, the youngest daughter of five, and who herself, had five lovely (if I must say so) daughters. My four sisters are all mothers, some of them recently having given birth to their 2nd and 3rd children...and one of my closest friends, Katie, also just became a mother in 2011.

{my Mum, the daughter of 5 (above), & me, daughter of 5 (below) both with kitties}

{my Mum & her four sisters on her wedding day}

I am grateful for my Mum who is the best role model in the world. Anyone who has sailed aboard the SALTS boats will have been adopted by her as a temporary mother & they'll attest to her amazing spirit. She loves whole-heartedly, she is always eager to please & help, she treats strangers as friends, and she never thinks ill of anyone. I still have much to learn and unfortunately don't measure up in those departments.

{my Mum as the figure head on Pacific Swift}

She is always enthusiastic for all our endeavours--as varied as they are, and she never puts expectations on us, but somehow manages to make us expect the most of ourselves. A tricky thing to do as a parent. She hardly ever reprimanded but we  were well-disciplined. She's given us all an extreme amount of independence without letting us stray.... and I have to say, as the last of 5 daughters I was very independent & had a very determined mind at a young age...not to mention far too much energy (hence my early nickname Leapy). My Mum had to raise me primarily on the boat, so she had to have a lot of perseverance not to chuck me overboard;) but she also had to learn ways of instigating rules and dealing with the difficulties of raising a child on the sea rather than on land (such as the rule "always one foot on deck" which replaced "look both ways before you cross the street").

{me on Robertson II}

My Mum has always been super adaptable as my parents' lives have taken them all over the world. She had to, for instance, adapt to living way up north in Oona River, raising 4 kids (before I was born) up there with no electricity and my Dad absent for weeks on end, fishing. Still she managed amazingly, whether on boats or on land, or travelling all over the world with my Dad with the 5 of us traipsing behind...

{my Mum, with my sis Esther, in Oona River}

{my family in the early 80s in Victoria}

{my family in Papiete, Tahiti, in the late 80s. Notice my Mum--gorgeous!}

{my Mum & her 5 daughters in Hawaii, late 80s}

{My family outside my Dad's boarding school, Breeks, in Ooty, India  mid-90s}

{My parents & the three youngest in Cochin, India}

My Mum is amazingly smart--although she never advertises it. She reads widely, has a nursing degree, a Ham radio license, and speaks & writes more eloquently than I do,  (me with a PhD). 

{mum at graduation}

Most of all, my Mum has provided me with a model on what it is to love. Love your family, love your children, and she was lucky to find the love of her life, at 14--my parents have shown me what a good & meaningful marriage is. I love you Mum!

{my parents}

{my parents at the Imperial Hotel  in 2005 (the Imperial is just next door to where my Dad spent his last years in India before he moved to Canada as a teenager & met my Mum)}