I hope each of you will have a wonderful Mother’s Day week!! We have still been having trouble with the blog sending out, so if you haven’t been getting the articles, hang in there and go back and read the last several posts–SOME GREAT PROJECTS!!!  I thought about doing this year’s holiday blog on gifts and recipes, but realized most of you are Mothers yourselves and are, hopefully,  busy being treated on this special day! Instead, I am sharing with you a cherished family photo, some sweet quotes, and a treat at the close of this post!

Thank you, Mom, for all you have done for me!!!! I only hope I have turned out to be half the woman you are and have inspired me to be!! This is my sweet Mom and my brother and I probably in 1963.

Segreto Book Club: I felt this read would be a wonderful Mother’s Day treat for you all!! My sweet friend and author, Kristy Woodson Harvey’s has just debuted her first novel Dear Carolina; it launched last week. I have read it and it is fabulous!!

Here is the summary from Goodreads of the book:

One baby girl. Two strong Southern women. And the most difficult decision they’ll ever make.

Frances “Khaki” Mason has it all: a thriving interior design career, a loving husband and son, homes in North Carolina and Manhattan—everything except the second child she has always wanted. Jodi, her husband’s nineteen-year-old cousin, is fresh out of rehab, pregnant, and alone. Although the two women couldn’t seem more different, they forge a lifelong connection as Khaki reaches out to Jodi, encouraging her to have her baby. But as Jodi struggles to be the mother she knows her daughter deserves, she will ask Khaki the ultimate favor…

Written to baby Carolina, by both her birth mother and her adoptive one, this is a story that proves that life circumstances shape us but don’t define us—and that families aren’t born, they’re made…

I absolutely loved the book!! I was immediately pulled into this inspirational lyrical piece of Southern fiction by its voice: that of two mothers writing, in alternating chapters, to baby Carolina. It was so inspirational and heartwarming to me how each mother put her fears and egos aside to play graceful, powerful roles in each other lives – and in that of their daughter. As the mother of three, I was uplifted, charmed, challenged, and sad to come to the last page of this insightful and delightful story.

Do my fellow design lovers recognize author Kristy’s name? She blogs at Design Chic about how creating a beautiful home can be the catalyst for creating a beautiful life! She is a regular contributor for Domino magazine and Houzz. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and three-year-old son. Send this lovely read to your mother; recommend it to your friends. Dear Carolina redefines family, friendship and love. They will enjoy it as I did!!!

You can purchase it on her blog Design Chic or on Amazon.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day with their families. For more of my favorite ways to honor Mom this year, visit my Mother’s Day board on Pinterest and/or revisit last year’s blog here! Till next week!