70 Corsages for Mother's Day

When I was growing up, at my church, the youth always made corsages for all the mothers at church. But we made them out of Kleenex tissue. You know, you fold a tissue in half, make an accordion, tie the middle with a wire, and fluff up the layers. Strange, but true. Sometimes, we'd even take lipstick and rouge the edges, so they looked more like a carnation.

Now that I'm a mother myself, although I appreciate the efforts that went into those tissue paper carnation corsages, real flowers hold a little more appeal to me. Call me funny that way.

So, last year, I took it upon myself to make real flower corsages for all the mothers at my church. I had a $100 budget, and of course, all the women loved them. What makes you feel more special than having a lovely corsage to wear?

This year, we made it a youth group project, so 5 youth (including my own two girls) helped me make 70 corsages. The youth were fairly helpful--but even a group of 5 adults would be hard pressed to make a decent corsage. It takes an eye for design, plus manual dexterity to hold the flowers in place while you wind them with florist tape. Even making a nice bow is a challenge for most people, not to mention kids.

Still, I was happy to celebrate Mothers Day with this yearly ritual. Being surrounded by lots of flowers is enjoyable, whatever the reason.