Valerie Earnshaw of Bedford has been selected as the 2010 New Hampshire Mother of the Year by the New Hampshire Chapter of American Mothers Inc.

Earnshaw, 47, is mother to four children, ranging from age 11 to 19.

She was born in 1962 in Provo, Utah. In her parents’ home with five women in the house, Earnshaw learned the power and influence of women.

While working in Washington D.C., she met and married her husband of 20 years, Scott Earnshaw, and together with their family have lived in Washington D.C., Connecticut and Japan, finally settling in New Hampshire.

“Somehow over the years, motherhood has helped me root out selfishness,” Earnshaw said. “Motherhood helped me replace a preoccupation with me with an awareness of the needs of others, not just my children but people everywhere.”

Responsibilities of Mother of the Year include speaking to organizations around the state.

Earnshaw’s platform includes making family a priority, helping parents to have the resources and encouragement they need to strengthen their families and helping parents to balance their lives.

“I’ve developed talents as a mother. I’ve learned to cook more than just Rice-a-roni, entertain like Martha Stewart, throw birthday parties that would make Walt Disney envious and create family traditions strong enough to hold my family together,” she said.

“With motherhood, I have developed the right side of my brain to a degree that this finance, accounting, numbers person never dreamed.”

Earnshaw has been called friend, literacy advocate, volunteer, teacher, motivator, pianist, cook, gardener, president and manager. However, she prefers her paramount title: mother.

Nominees for this award are sought yearly on the state level with recommendations coming from the mother’s outside contacts, such as church groups, choral groups, PTA organizations, local businesses, etc., according to the New Hampshire Chapter of American Mothers Inc.