If you ever want to be permanently busted by your mother, you can do what my brothers and sisters and I did one year: forget Mother's Day.

More than 20 years later, we are still in trouble for it.

Considering all that mothers do for their kids, remembering one day out of the year is the least we can do in return. And, while it's nice to remember your mom with flowers and cards, there is a more personal, more powerful way to remember her: Record her history.

Mom had a life before she had you. And it is a life worth honoring and remembering. By writing down your mother's story, you have an original and unique way of telling her how important she is. You'll be giving her the one gift that is hers alone: her history. And it becomes something your family will value for generations.

If this sounds like something you'd like to do, here are a few pointers:

• Approach the project in stages
• Do your research
• Ask good questions
• Gather artifacts from her life
• Take good notes
• Get creative when you pull it all together

I guarantee you, if you take the time to do this, your mother will love it. And you just may learn something you didn't know about the woman who brought you into the world.

I've just started capturing my mother's history--and already, I've found out the story of how the toilet really caught on fire.