My Mother...

My mom's birthday was this week, so I've been thinking about her a lot. Many of you know her or have met her. I feel so privileged to be her daughter. As a teenager, I would come home from school and follow her around the house telling her all about my day- good and bad. I am thankful that I have a friendship relationship with my mother. She has so many skills that I've been able to learn from her. You know, like, listening skills, being tactful skills, sewing skills, movie quoting skills, cooking skills, cleaning skills, the list goes on. LOL Although I'm applying Napoleon Dynamite to this post- I'm very serious about the things I've learned from such an incredible woman.

There are many qualities about her that I haven't been able to adopt yet- She is more outgoing than I am. I admire that she is comfortable with introducing herself to new people whenever she sees them at church or wherever... I admire her for her ability to follow the promptings of the Spirit and recognize them as such... I love that she set such a good example for her children in caring for herself. It seems like a huge struggle that we hear on tv, etc. about taking care of yourself and whether or not it's selfish or if you should put more effort into your kids/job/etc. She has taught us by example that a body is a temple and should be cared for.

But not just physical appearance... She has taught and nurtured our minds to recognize our agency and choices so that we can be happy. She loves to read and work with her hands. She has taught us to be frugal and learn to do things for ourselves. (My dad is also great at this!) When something needed to be done, she just did it. My mom is great at time management and multi-tasking. I have many memories of watching her make jelly and can peas. She cut and permed our hair and made wedding/prom dresses. She was the Room Mother for my kindergarten class and made cinch bags for every student for our Christmas party. Lots of little memories like that mean so much.

Before I started school, I can remember walking through the house looking for my mom and finding her on her knees by her bed. I think she was just saying her morning prayers and probably never knew I was watching.

Happy Birthday mama. I love you.