Thanks Mom

Things I did today that I learned from my Mom:

1. Woke up early and read in bed. My mom is an avid reader and taught me not only to read, but to LOVE reading. I was re-reading Guernsey Literary and Potato-Peel Pie Society for bookclub. I love that book.
   
2. Sang to myself and my kids while getting ready. My mom knows a song for everything and taught them all to us. Lillian's current favorite is The Playmate Song, as she calls it. (That version is annoying, sorry. Lillian likes it when you get really dramatic in the "She couldn't come out and play, it was a rainy day part" and actually pretend to cry. Also, my mom didn't say ain't. I think it hurt her ears. She taught me to sing, "Don't have a rain barrel..." instead. Also, my mom taught me how to sing this song in pig latin.
   
3. Taught 100 kids under 12 how to perform the chorus of "Follow the Prophet" in sign language. I love my job as singtime leader in Primary, which I would not have had my mother not taught me how to play piano and/or sing and/or passed on at least some of her teacher genes to me and/or taught me how to sign a little.
   
4. Laughed at and was silly with my kids. Mom was always ready with something fun.
5. Whisked up some gravy from pan drippings. (I was barefoot and pregnant (obviously) at the time, which adds a little something, don't you think?) In fact, I just read a book called, How to Sew a Button, and I would say I already knew how to do 98% of the things in there because of my mother.
   

That's all I can think of for today, it's been kind of slow, but things happen all the time that I can trace to my mother. For example: my friend Candie came to visit for a few days and we made brownies. I had Lillian up on the counter next to the mixer because she takes her job of dumping in ingredients and turning on and off the mixer very seriously. I was counting eggs and pulled out three and asked Lillian to help me figure out how to get to four. I kept counting wrong and Lillian told me I was being silly. The whole time, Candie was sort of watching and when we were done mixing it all, she said, "you know, you're a really great mom!"

I said thank you, but really I thought, 'isn't this what moms do?' I have very strong memories of sitting on the counter, counting cups of flour to go into cookies; or my mom teaching me how to do algebra while waiting for my dentist appointment when I was 10; or washing my hair and braiding it when I was sick; or taking me to the Huntington Library; or a bazillion other things that I hope I can replicate for my kids.

Thanks mom, for being awesome.