Rain rain, go away. How about it? I just checked the next 10 days on the weather forecast and there is a chance of rain, 7 out of the next 10. I fully appreciate the rain for all the farmers that need it in order to start their growing season, however, after a winter that just has not seemed to go away, I would be much happier when all of the rain goes with it. A few weeks back, we had a splurge of warmer weather with some drier days that tried to get us out of the cabin fever for good for the season but the cooler temperatures and the rain that quickly folllowed have kept us away from a lot of our early spring activities. According to the weather report, our average is usually 3.6" of precipitation for April and we have already had 5.14". They even say May is traditionally a wetter month here in the Illinois Valley than April is. I don't know if I can take more of it. We need bright sunny days, warm weather, green grass and the colorful flowers. It has been too long.

I guess you could call it on the bright side, but the old saying goes, "April Showers bring May Flowers" and I can't wait. We have all heard this rhyme before. It can actually be traced back to 1557 where Thomas Tusser, an English poet, wrote a short writing that consisted of the lines, "Sweet April showers, do spring may flowers". It was part of a collection he titled Five Hundred Points to Good Husbandry. Hmmm.....Apparently there is meaning behind these words. A meaning we could all use in our everyday life. This short rhyme refers to a lesson in patience. Many of life's greatest things come to those that wait and being patient and happy through the dark and damp days of April will allow you to take in the sights and smells of May. I guess it gives us something to look forward to each year and reminds us to be patient, it will come. Who am I to think we can change it.  

Mother's Day is around the corner and because of that I wanted to share some inside perspective of how mothers in this business handle the day that is supposed to be theirs. I searched the internet to find out how Mother's Day was started because there is always a story behind how these holidays begin. There is much more to the story, but I found that Anna Jarvis, over 150 years ago, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it, "Mother's Work Day." Oddly enough, that's exactly what we, "in the business" have been been calling it for years!

Personally, I've been groomed to work these holidays, where it's to the point that it's hard for me to grasp the magnitude and importance of the day. I know that's not an admirable trait, but by the time the weekend ends on Sunday night, all I want to do is go to bed. While most everyone else is enjoying their weekend or having a family dinner on Sunday, we in the restaurant business are giving the last bit of energy that we can muster. This is what my family does on Mother's Day. We work! And to show my own Mother my appreciation for her.........I put her on the schedule! On my wife's side of the family (a family that has not been around the restaurant industry their whole lives) well, they certainly understand and accept why I'm not around, but they wonder why I can't get just a little bit more time away on such holidays, especially Mother's Day. It really is an interesting contrast. And now, this will be the first Mother's Day that I will be able tell and show my wife what a wonderful Mother she is.

So all of this got me thinking, what type of toll does this holiday take on other families within the business? I started to ask our staff that has been doing this for several years, what it's like for them and how many Mother's Day's in a row they have worked. The answers surprised me. Some, like Marsha, have worked as many as 40 years in a row on Mother's Day! Wow! Most, like Mary and Trace and Sheila, don't ever remember having a Mother's Day off. Again, it's what they do, they work on the busiest restaurant day of the year. There was one person, who in their 30 plus years in the business received a Mother's Day off, and that was Melinda. Why? Well, she had her daughter Tiffany on May 1st, just a few days before Mother's Day and work told her to stay home. So that's what it takes to get off on Mother's Day........have a baby! What a simple solution.

Overall, I was surprised to hear the Mother's say that this really wasn't a burden. Sure, they missed their kids, but they would just have a family dinner the day before, the day after or on the shift they weren't working on Sunday. They understand what is going on at the restaurants they work. The one similarity in all their stories was that their children understood and made the best of the weekend when they could. It was their own Mother's that wanted them to be around a little more. Their Mother's were the ones that wanted to see them the most. In all of their planning for the day, the most important thing for them was that they had time to stop and see THEIR Mother. No matter how busy or tired they were, they made sure, they made the time! Fortunately for me, I get to see my Mother at work! At the end of the day, I admire all of our staff that comes to work with smiles on their faces. It would be easy to wish they were somewhere else.