My Mother

Today is Mom's birthday! As I have been thinking about her a lot today I just wanted to share a couple stories…

My Mother is the greatest teacher I have ever had. As a young child she taught me to read, write, draw and count…I remember being about four years old, I would have "school" and "chores" while the big-kids were at school. Now, coming from the large family that I do, I know that there had to be other kids around, but I mostly just remember Mom and me. I would sit at my little yellow desk and do my schoolwork (coloring pictures and tracing letters) and then I would help Mom out in the kitchen by doing the breakfast dishes. Mom would always ask me to wash ten dishes and then come get her (she was busy feeding the baby - possibly Denise?) Now I have never been quite certain if it was intentional or not, but as I remember it, at the time I was unable to count! I would just wash the whole sink-ful of dishes 'cause I didn't know better! My Mother is brilliant! My favorite part though was that, without fail, she would show surprise at the amount of dishes I had washed and always congratulated me on a job well done. One of the reasons that I have the best Mom ever.

Another important skill that my Mother helped me develop early was to sew straight. Now, for those of you who don't sew at all it may not be apparent why this was so important. Well, trust me, if you ever want to make clothing that looks professional, you need to be able to sew strait (and if you lack sufficient patience to use a seam ripper). I was in fifth grade and Mom was finally going to let me make some of my own clothes. I was so excited to go with her to Fabricland where we purchased the material and patterns. We chose a beautiful dark floral for some pants with suspenders (hey, it was the early '90's) and a peach-colored floral print for a dress. We started with the pants. Mom assisted me in laying the paper pattern out appropriately to get the strait of grain and carefully cutting around each pattern piece. Then I started the construction. How fun it was to be able to sew on Mom's Singer 301A sewing machine! It was so quick and the stitches so even…but alas, I misguided the fabric and the seams were not strait. Mom taught me how to pick out the stitches without harming the fabric. During that project I must have sewed the equivalent of five pairs of pants, but they turned out beautifully when I was finally done. I wore those floral pants until they were completely threadbare. And I have often benefited from that important lesson - always sew strait!

Mom also often incorporated gospel lessons into daily tasks. We, her children, must have been a constant challenge and maybe that was why she always pulled back to the fundamental truths. Many a scripture did we get to practice (we won't share why we were reciting them so often) while pulling weeds in the onion fields (or potato, or corn, etc.), character was built and truth and knowledge gained. Those were the good days.

Some other cool facts about Mom - - -
She loves Dad
She has 13 children (don't believe what you may hear, we all know I am the favorite!)
(A quick side note, our fam isn't much for photos - don't even remember the last time we were all together for a picture. Instead, here is the wall - that's all of us! And yes, I can name everyone)
She makes the best doughnuts in the world
She can listen to (and understand) two conversations at once
She can buck bales, drive a tractor, milk the cows, and make a meal…all before the sun rises (ok, she used to do all this - now some has been passed off to the kids!)
She can make anyone feel better (emotionally or physically)
She is well loved, especially by her nephews who know her kitchen is always open!
She has great compassion
She has talent for quilting - creating beautiful works of art
She is pretty much amazing : )

I am blessed with the most wonderful Mother and I am so glad she is mine.

I love you Mom, happy birthday!