My Mom

The Folks

I've been thinking a lot about how I am becoming my mom.  I know it sounds cliche, but really, I am.  And that's not all bad because I like who I am and I am learning to accept my obviously inherited traits.

Here are a few things about my mom:

She insists that she was blond and tan until she had children.

She calls her beautifully muscular legs "football player legs" and claims her calves are wider than my dad's.  It apparently doesn't matter that we have debunked this theory several times by making scientific measurements.

She used to make us go to bed at 7 pm.  I vividly remember hearing the kids riding bikes in front of our house during the summer months.  I now know the value of early bedtime and the value of hearing your friends out playing while you are in bed, just ask my kids.  Oh yeah, and blackout blinds.

Back in the day she tried to be healthy.  We would go to school with egg salad sandwiches (stinky!) on homemade bread (embarrassing!) and if we complained that we never got dessert in our lunch she would say, "I gave you grapes..."  I still remember eating the crusts from Missy Dugan's peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread.  I guess you could say that was my dessert.

Those were the days when she made bread.  I distinctly remember getting hurt at school and my mom rushing in to get me.  She was covered in flour and had on her white apron.  I think she quickly lost interest in the labor of making bread for the family, probably because she got pregnant with Nat and life got complicated and busy.

She has her convictions.  When I came home singing the "Baby Bumblebee" song she was disgusted.  She called the principal and complained that her first grader was singing a song about vomiting.  I was afraid to go to music class for the remainder of the year.  She threatened to call the school and tell them to send us home because our rooms weren't clean.  We never could be too sure... I mean who calls about a song from music?  My mom does.

She once had a full out shouting match with my Brownie leader for some injustice I'm sure.  I've NEVER done that... at least not with a Brownie leader.

Back before the second litter (aka Nat and Meri) she was a disciplinarian.  She acknowledges that I got more than my share.  Mostly because I was "the only one she could hear" with my "shrieking".  When you felt her fingers squeezing your ear you knew you were officially BUSTED.

Right after Meri was born my mom had to go back to work. With that came a lot of emotions and stress.  I remember we were driving home from someplace asking what we were going to have for dinner.  She said we were going to have left-over navy bean soup.  As we all protested she burst into tears. What seemed so random makes all kinds of sense to me today.  Jared can attest that I have NEVER done that...

Another time she discovered all of the crackers she had bought were gone.  She got angry and teary again.  This time she claimed we were, "punishing her for working".  We laugh about it now, but again, it's all too familiar.

By the way, I love my mom. She is responsible for much of who I am today-- either genetically or by example.  And as a quick disclaimer, I grew up in a family where teasing is the highest form of love.  If your aren't being made fun of to the point of tears...

Happy Mother's Day!

***Maybe the sib's could write their own memories on their blogs, I need a laugh and I'm sure mom does too!***