Mothers Day (a little late)

My mother does not have the reputation for being a whiz at technology.  The tech geek in the family is my dad.  However, this blog would not exist if it wasn't for my mom's lack of technology savvy.  She was the first blogger in the family.  She wrote a blog about ideas for kids, families, and home-making for about 4 years.  Every month when her blog deadline was looming she would call me for technical support for her blog in charge of editing and adding any needed photos. Through helping her I decided to take up blogging myself and have really enjoyed it during this season of my life.  Arthur and I's goal for May and June is to write a blog about each of our parents for Mother's and Father's Day. 

 In addition to exposing me to blogging my mother has passed down many of her interests to me.  One is a love for reading. Each night as a kids Mom would read to us before bed.  On car trips she would often become hoarse since we always wanted her to read aloud-- I think she was very grateful when audiobooks came onto the scene.  Many of my favorite books that I have read over and over, Mom read to me first.  Now I am excited to share many of those favorite books with Arthur.

Also at an early age I found myself helping Mom in the garden.  I'm pretty sure at the age of 4 I wasn't really that much help since I probably ate more strawberries than I picked.  (Who are we kidding, this was true at the age of 25 too.)  Gardening is something that is passed down through the maternal line in my family.  My grandmother was quite the gardener and still today loves to sit on her back patio surveying her flora.  My mother will spend hours in her gardens, sometimes even into night she will be pulling weeds in the dark. Mom was my 4-H gardening leader and now I can't wait until I have a yard of my own and can landscape with the family plants-- some families pass down fine china, our family passes down day lilies.

One of the most important things my mother imparted was a love of learning.  Mom is a teacher and just couldn't help herself especially when it came to her kids.  Whether it was through reading, doing 4-H projects, or taking family vacations we were going to learn something whether we liked it or not.  I'm thankful for the love of learning because who can be bored when there is something left to learn.  

At this stage in my life I would say my relationship with my mom has blossomed into a wonderful friendship.  If I call to ask a quick questions before long we have been chatting an hour.  About what, who knows? We happen to share a Pinterest account.  This goes back to my mom's lack of technology skills and not having a Facebook account.  It is fun to trade ideas back and forth from afar.  We also enjoy doing things together.  One summer I was training for a week long bike ride and Mom got up every morning at 7am to ride 12 miles with me-- we had to be back by 8am to was HGTV.  We had such a wonderful time biking together that summer.  While I don't think biking is my mom's favorite way to spend her time I have very fond memories of tooling down county roads together on our bikes. 

We have also found ourselves together in other adventures.  I remember the weekend I moved to KC to start PT school and Mom and I were hurtling down I-35 with the suburban loaded with all my possessions.  I was scared to death to drive in KC and Mom wasn't too fond of it either but we made it.  Probably our biggest joint effort was Arthur and I's wedding.  Let's just say my mother missed her calling -she would be an excellent event planner.  While I was excited about getting married I was too busy and not too interested in all the details that go into planning and organizing a wedding.  Thankfully Mom stepped up in the role as wedding planner for me.  She made a large portion of the food, did the floral arrangements, put together all the decorations, and made my wedding dress- it was an impressive feat. 

My friends also seem to enjoy my mom.  While Mom was never "the cool mom" growing up (I don't believe this was ever her ambition) our friends enjoyed coming over.  My mom can throw a pretty good birthday party, feed 30 high schools with minimal prior notice, and always had some type of activity planned.  In college, my mom always kept me stocked with chocolate chip cookies which several of my friends still comment about today.  Often times they would wander into my room not to say hello or chat but just for one of those chocolate chip cookies.  I can only think of one time when my mom wasn't very popular with my peers and that was one day when she our substitute teacher for American History and we were watching The Patriot.  My mother ended up fast forwarding through most of the movie and telling us to "close our eyes" and "not to watch" through the rest due to the blood and gore-- after all it is a war movie. 

My mom has a degree in home economics so she is a professional at "home-making".  This is something else I did not seem to appreciate as much while living at home.  If I need to know why something I am cooking isn't turning out right, I call her.  If I am not sure how to remove ink stains from my khaki pants, she gets a phone call.  Questions about how to get the best deal on household products, she is the one I ask.  However, her home-making skills go beyond the objective, out-of-a-textbook skills.  Her home is always welcoming and comfortable.  Her home-making skills included providing a fun, educational childhood, encouraging us in our endeavors--even the strange and crazy, sticking up for us if needed or making us stand up for ourselves,  to today being a friend but also providing the wisdom that can only come from your mom.  Omnia Vincit Amor.