Make Your Mom Feel Special! (Mother’s Day Edition)

Hello, my wonderful Plante Lifers!

Mother’s Day is this Sunday (in the U.S.), and I have some cool ways to help make your mom feel special this Mother’s Day!

This year can be especially hard for some of us with the social distancing protocol. Maybe you live far away from your family, or it is recommended that they are not around a lot of people for their health. Or your mom is just not quite tech-savvy enough to manage a Zoom session. 

No matter what the situation, it’s still possible to shower mom (or any positive mother figure!) with love this weekend. Even if you have limited time and budget. 

Here are TPL’s Top 5 Ways to Make Your Mom Feel Special on Mother’s Day!

Write Her An Old-Fashioned Letter

This is the simplest gift idea on our list but perhaps the most heartfelt — and will definitely make your mom feel special.  There is nothing that shows your mom how much you care about her than putting it in your own words. 

Before we had the speedy transportation we enjoy now, families were often separated by months of costly and even dangerous travel, so the likelihood that they would only reunite a handful of times in a lifetime was high. They channeled that longing and appreciation into correspondence people still read in museums and books today.  

Just because we can now shoot off an email in the blink of an eye doesn’t mean that the art of letter writing is dead. Here are a few tips to help you get started sharing your thoughts.

1. What skills have you learned from her that you still use today? Include the big (how to read) and the small (how to boil the perfect egg).
2. Which qualities do you admire in her? 
3. Talk about a favorite memory with her or when you shared a funny moment together.

You can either send this letter to her snail mail or read it to her over the phone or video chat. Let her know how much she means to you and how grateful you are for all her support and love. 

Take A Virtual Trip Together

Since we can’t jet-set across the pond to hit up famous international museums, taking a virtual tour is the next best thing. And best of all, you can do it together even if you have to be separate. Just connect with your mom over Zoom conferencing or Google Meets, and share your screen with her. 

Here are a few museums to check out:

• The Louvre: You don’t have to book a ticket to Paris to check out some of the famous pieces in the world’s largest art museum. The Louvre has free online tours of three famous exhibits, including Egyptian Antiquities.
• Getty Museum: Los Angeles’s premiere gallery has two virtual tours, including “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry,” which is a closer look at food in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art: It was a big bummer that the infamous Met Gala was canceled this year, but you can still have a peak at the The Costume Institute Conversation Lab, which is one of the institution’s 26 online exhibits.
• MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art): New York’s extensive collection is available for view online.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Move at your own pace through the 360-degree room-by-room tour of every exhibit in the museum.

Maybe you’re less fine art and more natural beauty? You can even experience virtual walking tours and hikes online together. Here are a few to check out: 

• Moraine Lake Shoreline Trail, Banff, Alberta, Canada: Take the trail to the stunning blue waters of glacially-fed Moraine Lake. 
• Indian Beach Trail, Ecola State Park, Oregon: This has both ocean cliff views and fern-filled forests. 
• Pyramids of Giza, Egypt: This gorgeous walking tour takes you from Mortuary Temple of Khafre to the iconic sphinx.
• Positano, Italy: Been dreaming about a vacation on the Amalfi Coast? Experience the bustling city right in the heart of it like a regular sightseer. 

If you want to turn your travels up a notch, make your mom feel special by dressing up for the occasion! Get a little glam for your museum visit or grab a water bottle before your head out on the trail. 😉

Take An Online Cooking Class

With a virtual cooking class, you can get the whole family to pitch in for her Mother’s Day brunch or dinner. Whether you’re looking for a specialty class (bread-making, for example) or want to cook a whole meal from scratch, Bluprint has you covered with a ton of options. And it’s affordable too, with classes averaging around 10 bucks.

Perhaps you’re a fan of the show Master Chef, you know that Christina Tosi, the pastry chef behind New York’s Milk Bar empire, always has something sweet up her sleeve. You can join in her daily LIVE Bake Club on Instagram. Be sure to check out her Story with the staples you’ll need beforehand, and send mom a special delivery so she can participate without a lot of extra work (it’s her day, after all!). 

Is there a skill your family wants to perfect? America’s Test Kitchen has a FREE 3-week trial at their online cooking school with 320+ courses available.

Get cooking with Massimo Bottura’s “Kitchen Quarantine”. The chef of the three-Michelin-star Osteria Francescana has a MasterClass on modern Italian cooking, but he has also taken to his Instagram account within the last month to start a more casual series called Kitchen Quarantine. He focuses on creating simple meals using ingredients you likely already have on hand.

Just be sure to toast to mama before you dive in!

Get The Giggles 

Another easy but fun way to celebrate your mother is to have a good ol’ laugh at some of your family’s sillier moments. Recruit your other family members and put together a list of “famous lines” from the family (things that Mom used to say a lot) or a Top-10 list of fun family moments. Bonus points if you reenact a few for mom (safely, of course). 

Or you and your siblings can recreate some childhood pictures now as adults and share them in a virtual scrapbook for mom – maybe even set it to some of your mom’s favorite tunes. And you can even learn a dance together (filming it for TikTok is optional). 😉 

At-Home Spa Day

If you can spend some physical time with your mom on her special day, why not bring the spa experience to her? Make your mom feel extra special with a mani/pedi — or if that’s not your jam, you can do it together on your own hands and feet 🙂

Start with a traditional Balinese Foot Soak like the one below.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup of Epsom salt

A few drops of essential oil like Eucalyptus (pain relieving and deodorizing) or jasmine oil (especially good oil for a positive mental boost)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill a basin with warm water.
2. Add the Epsom salt and a few drops of each essential oil.
3. Soak your feet for 30 to 60 minutes.
4. After you dry off, moisture your feet with coconut oil and put on a fresh pair of socks to lock in the hydration.

Or how about a refreshing facial? Here are two DIY face masks you can pamper her with!

Coconut Oil Coffee Scrub

INGREDIENTS

• 2-3 TBS of organic ground coffee
•  ½ cup of organic whole brown sugar
•  ½ cup organic coconut oil (do not use melted coconut oil, make sure it is in solid form, if not, put in fridge beforehand!)
•  ½ cup of organic liquid castile soap (I love Dr. Bronners, if you have sensitive skin, use the baby castile soap.)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a high speed, powerful blender, mix sugar and coconut oil until they are slightly blended. Make sure you don’t mix for too long or you will melt the coconut oil and break the sugar granules down.
2. Scoop this coconut oil/sugar mixture into a stainless steel or aluminum bowl, then put in another bowl that is filled with cold ice water.
3. Whip the scrub with an electric mixer until the scrub is fluffy and creamy.
4. Add the ground coffee and liquid soap until they are just combined.
5. Put the scrub in a mason jar. Will keep for 1-2 months.
6. If it’s hot in your place, keep it in the fridge. Otherwise, you can leave it at room temperature.
7. You can use this daily or weekly on your bod before you shower, and especially on areas with cellulite. Coffee works wonders! You’ll get about 5-6 uses from one batch.

NOTE:  Wash this scrub down the drain with hot water and a natural cleaner if it leaves your shower too greasy. Cold water will only harden the oil.

Manuka Honey Face Mask

Manuka honey not only tastes awesome, but it’s also known for its amazing antibacterial, antibiotic properties — and it’s great for your face! In addition to soothing irritation, it also increases collagen production, aids with reducing dark spots, and locks in moisture.

SIMPLE ONE INGREDIENT FACE MASK

1. Spread a tablespoon of Manuka honey over your clean face (avoiding the eyes).
2. Leave it on for 20 minutes, then rinse with warm water.
3. Pat your face dry and apply your favorite moisturizer or facial oil.

For additional skin-brightening, acne-fighting benefits, mix the Manuka honey with a pinch of turmeric before applying.

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How do you plan to celebrate and make your mom feel special this weekend? Any other ideas you want to share? Let me know in the comments below!

LOVE + big hugs!