A Mother's Day Weekend

(10 bucks if you can guess which one is me)

Things I learned from my mom:

Life Takes Instruction: Every task, even the most mundane, has a myriad of instructions attached to it. If she doesn't give you instructions, she will instruct AFTER the fact, like, "You didn't wipe the table effectively because you wiped the crumbs onto the floor, you have to wipe them onto your hand and rinse in the sink", etc. You have to be organized in order to raise 9 kids.

I Love Your Dad: A fierce loyalty to my dad is something that taught us when we were young to respect the work my dad did every day for our family. In turn, it helped me respect my mother for the work she did without asking for much recognition. She stuck by my dad when it came to the kids.

Everyone is Worth Your Time: To this day, in the small town of Eureka, CA, my mom will talk to anybody in a grocery store. ANYONE. This includes the woman with no teeth, wearing a faded, stained tank top, smelling like alcohol so bad, and won't quite look you in the eye. She will talk to her. Ask her where her kids go to school. Tell her she should go to the beach because the ocean "has never looked more glorious than it does today". Not because she feels compassion for her, but because she truly wants to know about her. She sees through everything and just wants to make friends with people.

You Can Cry Whenever You Want: Like her mother before her, she is a crier. We used to watch Anne of Green Gables in neat little 8-hour increments on Saturdays. They were our Green Gables and Avonlea marathons (what else do you do with 6 daughters?). When it came to a touching part (or every 20 minutes), all of our heads would swoop to hers and see if she was crying. Sure enough. But it was normal, comforting, and I miss it.

Makeup is for Special Occasions: And I mean SPECIAL. Like, your anniversary. My mom is rad. She really helped me either realize that I am pretty without makeup, or helped me realize that caring about my appearance is overrated.

Husbands Need Prodding: She is married to my dad. Who thinks you can go backpacking and sleep on the ground and eat dried refried beans every day and not bring bug spray. And we did that. Thousands of times. But my mom, she got him to roll up a mattress and put it in the car, bring flashlights with new batteries, plan REAL food, and actually PLAN things in general. My parents are an excellent combination.

You Are Worth Standing Up For: My mom stood up for me. Any chance she got. And she taught us to do the same for ourselves, with teachers, peers, and boyfriends. She is not shy about sharing her opinion, and I love her for that. Embarrassing at certain times of my life, but indispensible at others.

The Gospel is True: The fire inside my mother is unquenchable. She rose from difficult circumstances in her childhood and became a rock of religious truth, moral standards and unwaivering testimony. She is a light.

Love you Mama.