I really like this painting, it seems to have a positive feel about it. Even though the characters are obviously not wealthy, and working hard for their existence, it has a bright, cheerful kind of energy about it... but then I suppose that is the spirit of motherhood isn't it? No matter how much you have or don't have in life, you can still bring a positive, nuturing, optimistic outlook to life as you care for your family and go about your duties as a mother. Mother's Day in the UK is in March, so it has been and gone this year for me. I love the time I spend with my own children, and how my husband helps the girls to lay a tray and bring me breakfast in bed, chosen and prepared by them, and not always consisting of breakfast-like items...but always wonderful,and always adorned with small home-made gifts, and I never fail to feel loved and appreciated by them - not just Mother's Day, but every day. With my own mother, things are slighty different - I struggle to find a card that doesn't make me feel hypocritical, but I scour the shops until I do - in fact I probably spend more time on her in that way, than I would do if we were close and I could send a "how wonderful you are, you raised me so lovingly, and I would be lost without you" style card. This year for some reason, when I was at her house, I picked up the card my sister had sent, and inside it she had written "...I love you so very, very much" and it made me wonder whether my mother writes similar things in cards she sends to my sister too... I figured that she probably does, and felt a bit sad and hurt for a few moments, but then brushed it aside and got on with things. I am after all "the mistake" (unplanned pregnancy) and she has never made any bones about expressing her view of "don't have children, they ruin your life"...and my sister never has done and says she never will. (apparently having my sister was okay, because I'd already ruined her life by then, so there wasn't anything left to lose) And I look at them both, and I actually feel a bit sad for them, that neither of them knows how it feels to enjoy a fulfilling role as a mother. And maybe, without being conceited, although nobody is ever the perfect parent, and I am probably far from it, maybe it's okay for me to feel a little bit proud of how hard I have tried to ensure that I broke that mould...in fact my T says it to me sometimes, that she thinks I'm a good mother...and maybe I'm finally starting to take it on board and believe it.