"On Sundays we try to do dinner while
the boys play golf or watch sports on TV”
says Lindsay. "After dinner, we usually get
into a really intense game of canasta.”
family matters
I HAVE TWO daughters, 23 and 26. We
recently took a weekend trip and rented two
hotel rooms—one for them
and one for my
husband and me. In the morning, we heard a
knock on our door and there were the girls in
their pajamas. They ran in, jumped on the bed,
and started watching TV. It had been a long time
since they had done that. We laughed a lot.
—MICHELLE LEMEN
I WAS A a single mom
for several years and
my daughter and I would do many things
together. One of her favorites was to help cook
and pretend we had a cooking show. She would
explain each step and the ingredients as if she
were talking to an audience. She is 22 now
and a
nursing student, and we still laugh about our
cooking show
whenever she is home and is in
the kitchen w
ith me.
—TINA EHLE
MY MOM and her mother had an estranged
relationship. Mom
always said she never wanted
that w
ith me. This past summer we celebrated
her 50th birthday and my 21st by driving across
the country. We spent the whole time talking,
taking photos, and stopping whenever and
wherever we wanted—seeing America.
—AMANDA EISENSTEIN
MY DAUGHTER IS 13. Every day is special
to both of us as we talk and share laughs and
hug. While in school one day, she e-mailed me
that all her friends would love to have me as
their mother. However, she didn’t want me to
worry, because she wouldn’t trade me for
anything. Best e-mail I’ve ever received.
—MONICA COFIELD-MURPHY
I SNAPPED OUT of a mutant-teenager-type
of coma when I turned 20 and was living at
home while going to college. Mom
found she
was having a difficult time decorating the large
open spaces in her new
house. We spent
countless hours at stores finding great pieces for
our home that reflected a warm
sense of fam
ily
and fun. We bonded and discovered that we
weren’t just sharing ideas anymore; we were
sharing little bits of ourselves. This year I moved
to a house of my own and found that I had
trouble putting anything in place w
ithout her
opinion. It made me realize how
unique our
friendship is and what a great style we have
come to develop together.
— AMANDA SANBORN
I HAVE the most wonderful daughter! Her
grow
ing-up years were pretty rocky, but as we
both have matured we are very close. I live in
Nevada and m
iss gardening, but she lives in
M
issouri. So every spring I travel to her home
and we dig and plant and pull and cut and have a
wonderful time. Fortunately, her job requires
Western travels so she can visit me, too.
—SANDY VITT
MY MOTHER AND I have enjoyed
surprising each other over the past 10 years by
exchanging a gold friendship ball. We fill it w
ith
various gifts to help uplift one another or add
fun to a holiday. It can be anything from
lotions
to candy or just a nice note. We look forward to
opening it every time.
—PAM GARNER
MY 6-YEAR-OLD daughter and I work
together on making kid-friendly recipes that we
share in my work newsletter. She gets a great sense of
accomplishment seeing her recipes published.
—CARLA CERVANTES
WHEN MY DAUGHTER turned 18, we started to
connect on a new
level by having lunch and seeing a
movie every Friday. Now
that she’s in college, we still
look forward to her breaks at home and our Friday fun
days together. Half the fun is picking the movie/
restaurant combo.
—MICHELLE BROUSSARD
230 MAY >09 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
Inspiring Ideas
JOIN A WINE CLUB
Lindsay and Victoria Wurst
enlisted in a mail-order wine
club to rekindle memories
of a vacation they took
together. Handcrafted labels
are a pretty and creative
way to exchange opinions.
chick lit For moms and
daughters who share a love
of reading, why not start
your own book club? Agree
on what to read, or take
turns picking, then get
together by phone or in
person to discuss. Cruise
publisher and bookseller
Web sites for ideas and
thought-provoking
discussion guides.
SPA DAY Surprise your
mom with a homemade
mani-pedi kit—especially if
she’s fond of starting
sentences with, "I work my
fingers to the bone .
.. ” Find
clear paint cans at craft
stores and decorate them
for a personal touch. If you
can, hang the kit on her
door on May Day for
double points.
NEEDLING ALLOWED
Make a quilt together
through a block-of-the-
month club. Patterns are
available all over the
Internet—
bomquilts.com
does a great job of tracking
them—or at your local quilt
store. If one of you doesn’t
sew, you can still be involved
by selecting fabrics. The
idea is to get together at
the end of 12 months and
piece the blocks together
for the finale.
