Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

"Mother I love you, Mother I do. Father in Heaven has sent me to you. When I am near you, I love to hear you, singing so softly that you love me too.  Mother I love you, I love you I do!"

(We used to sing that song (often) when we would get in trouble and hope it would soften her heart...It generally worked!  She really is a softy!)

As the person in charge of the blog, I am taking the opportunity to write a few things I remember and cherish about my mother!

The knowledge of working hard for a testimony and fulfilling callings: I was thinking about this and have thought of the things that make her unique and my mom.  She is a strong person who knows what is right.  I remember when I was wondering whether the church was true or not and I asked her to just tell me.  She said, “I can’t know it for you, that’s something you’re going to have to find out on your own.” I was frustrated. I wanted to know, but I didn’t know how to know and I didn’t know how to do the “work” to know.  But I remember praying about it so many times and did what my mom told me to do.  Years later, I could (and still can) firmly tell you that because I wasn’t given the “easy” way, I now know it’s true.  Because my mom knew it was true, she was an example to me of what a believer does.  She never watched bad movies.  She always did her visiting teaching.  I remember one time jumping on the trampoline at Rita Cox’s house while mom and Rita went and did their visiting teaching.  (I was the youngest and smallest of course, and almost got trampled by the big kids as they jumped and broke the egg).

The value of serving others:  I remember, probably my fondest memories of growing up were the 5 pointed star, life saver books, one big candy cane apple turnover and any other creative things we could think of that went with the 12 days of Christmas.  Mom would be the driver of course and turn off the lights, us kids would run like lightening after we had snuck up, rang the doorbell and left another secret santa gift on the door.  I have wanted that tradition to continue on in my family. 

The love of learning and life: I remember sitting for long hours in the hallway reading encyclopedia books with mom.  She was always very inquisitive and wanted to learn about things; how to get rid of fungus, what planet was closest to Earth (okay that was and still is me), things about snakes, having every kind of animal possible (hamsters, hermit crabs, geckos, iguanas, tarantulas, snakes (“Don’t drop my snake!” Mom screamed after it bit me on the nose!), even a scorpion…what the heck was she thinking? No cats though, never cats…that I’m okay with!  It is because of her love of all life that I love life so much, animals, plants, music, nature etc.  I have learned so much from her.

How to study my scriptures:  It is a good woman who will wake up early and read her scriptures.  If you know my mom, then you know she has her little space/place that is her very own for studying scriptures. I often wonder how I turned out like her and I guess it’s because you do what you see.  I have become a mini her in many ways, it’s kind of scary and good in other ways.  I get up and read my scriptures, it fills me up and I have learned that from her.  Watching T.V. doesn’t fill you up.  Being in tune with the Spirit, doing what is right and giving certain amounts of time to things that invite the Spirit, that is what fills you up.

The value of Hard work: We had a pool growing up.  It was such a blessing and mom would go out and faithfully clean it.  She taught me hard work, even when I didn’t want to learn.  Now I tell her thank you soooo much for teaching me how to clean. It has been a huge blessing to me. I had thought many times that she was “tough love” but the older I get, the more I realize that “tough love” means you love someone so much that you don’t want it to be so easy for them, that when they come up against something difficult that they won’t know how to deal with it.

The Value of patience:  I can remember so many times when I didn’t want to do the dishes or finish something I had started, that mom would walk me through it.  It happened on occasion when I was just spent, that she would finish a task for me. It was then that I really knew that she loved me, because she taught me to work, but also taught me that there is only so much you can do in a situation.  She helped me and taught me patience. Often I am impatient and I think of her and how forgivingly patient she was with me.  This gives me more incentive to be patient with others. 

The value of forgiveness:  I remember when we lived in our really nice house in Palmdale that there was a room we weren’t really “allowed” in unsupervised…the following story will tell you why!  We were home alone.  The dog had this green bat (too tempting for children!) and a hamburger (with a ketchup line painted on it).  Well, we got to playing a mean round of baseball in the forbidden room and before we knew it, there were “ketchup” paint marks all over the white walls!  We were frantic. We got out fingernail polish remover, white out, Elmer’s glue (ps it dries clear) and any other white “paint” substance we could think of….needless say, it didn’t work out so well, so we practiced our parts of “Mother I love you” so that when she came home we could beg for forgiveness in this song.  It worked but we still got in trouble, but probably less because the song softened the blow.

The value of health:  When we were growing up, we weren’t allowed to drink soda, except for special occasions. I thought that was the meanest thing a parent could do to their kids.  So of course, ask any of my siblings what the smell of Dr. Pepper in a paper Burger King cup makes us remember, and we’ll tell you, “Really hot summer days in Blythe, barbed wire fence, beer cans and a hard earned quarter (or however much it cost)”  And then there were the times we would hoard the sodas from the 4^th of July parties at Tamarisc Apartments when they would have trash cans full of soda and ice….it was like we had been let loose in a chocolate factory! (the hoarders in us took complete control) And the other times when we were kids in Ogden and we would get our biannual soda and refill the can with water until it had holes in it and walk up and the down the block showing the other kids how cool we were that we had soda pop!  Well, I, to this day am so grateful that I am not addicted to soda pop. I’m glad that the fizzing is something I only partake of on special occasions and that I am healthier because of it (and have some pretty stupid and funny stories to tell because of it).

When I was on my mission, I got a letter that said that my mom had turned vegetarian!  I was in shock and totally not going to stand for that!  That’s just ridiculous! I told my companion right then and there that I would for sure be having a roastbeef dinner, mashed potatoes and gravy etc dinner when I got home.  That’s what I thought!!! Well, it didn’t turn out that way, but it didn’t turn out badly either! We had always grown up with a salad for dinner each night (mostly) and so that was normal, but my mom has since become an amazing (even more amazing than she was before) cocinera (cook).  She has rubbed off on me and here I am making vegetable soups and putting them in jars, salads for my daily lunch etc.  I am blessed because of her knowledge and awareness of what is important.  This has been a great blessing for me in my life as I have learned about health.

The Value of exercise:  I remember as a small kid seeing my mom work out in the morning. I was a real mama’s girl then.  I would wake up early to do work outs with her when I was about 4 or 5.  She would stretch and do aerobics so I would stretch and do aerobics!  She would walk every day and still runs every day.  Looking back I am amazed at how often she did those things and had no husband to support her doing them.  She did them because she knew it would help her more than anything to care for her body and love herself.

The value of comfort: It has been on two cold occasions that I have nuzzled my teary eyes into my mom’s faux fur coat (not sure if her coat is faux now, but it was when I was 14ish).  It was when we got in a car wreck and the guy just kept coming and slammed right into us.  I looked out the back passenger side as mom screamed, “Buddy are you going to stop? Buddy. Buddy.” and then he  slammed into us.  He went through the intersection and the glass shattered everywhere.  We were all okay, but it was a cold winter day in the town of Tehachapi and we were on our way home from church I believe.  I was crying and nuzzled my face into the comforting warm coat of my mom as I hugged her.  She said everything would be alright.

Then many years later, I was not able to drive anymore as the tears and emotion had overcome my composer.   Hal and mom were on their way home from the MTC where they worked in a branch presidency and I had just had my broken heart torn into more shattered shards than I knew what to do with.  There they stopped on a cold road and hugged me as I cried and they said, “It will all be okay.”  I did believe them. I knew I would be okay. I have been okay, and two years later, I’m growing again and believe it will be okay as long as you do what you know is right. 

I have learned from my mother, many, many things. I have learned how to behave (though I don’t always do what I’ve been taught! “Some people’s children.” Mom likes to say), to be bold, to be strong, to look at things from a different angle, how to forgive, how to let go, how to let hard times make you stronger. I haven’t seen all the things my mom has been through. I’ve heard many stories about them, but I have seen how she comes out on top even when it seems that there is nothing to look forward to.  She is my beacon.  She has come through so much and will go through so much. She asks the Lord to make her equal to the task as she trusts that what she can’t do, He can.  She was so devoted to learning Spanish. I wish all my students were as persistent and consistent as she has been. It is a hard thing to learn a language, but I’m sure I will be able to speak to her in Spanish fluidly in a few months after their mission. 

She has flaws and she has good things about her, but I wouldn’t take her any other way.  I know that the Lord set me up to be in this family, with these circumstances, and this mom so that I could become who I wanted to be in the end. I have been blessed beyond measure and treasure the memories I do have, even the painful ones, because they have made me who I am and sometimes, the tougher things are, the more you have to fight for what you know you want and I know what I want, because my mom taught me what was right…I do not doubt, because my mother knows it!  Happy Mother’s Day mom! I hope you’re happy and tears of joy are in your eyes and you know how valued you are.  Thanks for taking such good care of me and for loving me even when it’s been hard! I love you and wish you the best mother’s day ever!  Enjoy your memories! You’re making more right now!!!