How to get your whites really white....and other important stuff
Last Sunday was the big Christmas decoration day in our house. Curtis went and got a beautiful Windsor Pine and the kids and I pulled out our totes of Christmas stuff (a ridiculous number of totes by the way). As the eggnog flowed and the Holiday Tunes blared (yes, we're geeky traditionalists) I found myself uttering oddly familiar warnings, ("If you mess with those ornaments one more time, I'm going to put them all back and we're not having a Christmas tree this year"), and commands, ("The tree is crooked. Move it to the left, no...back....wait, maybe it wasn't crooked."), and in the end, just doing it all myself ("No, you may not play golf with my glass bulbs, put down that club NOW. Go find Dad."). As I pulled my 18 month old out of the tree for 55th time I realized I had made the inevitable transition, I've become my mother.
Of course this wasn't the first time this trite realization has reared it's creepy little head. Over my first six years of motherhood and marriage, I've caught myself using my mother's phrases, incorporating her philosophies, and utilizing her tactics.
All of this is particularly poignant for me at this time in my life, when my mother's age and body have robbed her of her vivacity and energy and as it gets harder and harder to visualize and remember the mother of my youth. That young woman lives within my siblings and myself. I am now my mother as she was 35 years ago.
As an admittedly cathartic way of remembering and honoring that woman, that creative, intelligent, independent, loving woman that raised 5 children successfully and has remained married for 40+ years (a noteworthy accomplishment in our day and age), I'm going to come up with 365 different "nuggets" my mother taught us. Some will be practical, some silly, and some more philosophical. The topics will range from motherhoood to careers to education to marriage to gardening to everything in between. And you can be rest assured, it will all be extremely important.
Of course this wasn't the first time this trite realization has reared it's creepy little head. Over my first six years of motherhood and marriage, I've caught myself using my mother's phrases, incorporating her philosophies, and utilizing her tactics.
All of this is particularly poignant for me at this time in my life, when my mother's age and body have robbed her of her vivacity and energy and as it gets harder and harder to visualize and remember the mother of my youth. That young woman lives within my siblings and myself. I am now my mother as she was 35 years ago.
As an admittedly cathartic way of remembering and honoring that woman, that creative, intelligent, independent, loving woman that raised 5 children successfully and has remained married for 40+ years (a noteworthy accomplishment in our day and age), I'm going to come up with 365 different "nuggets" my mother taught us. Some will be practical, some silly, and some more philosophical. The topics will range from motherhoood to careers to education to marriage to gardening to everything in between. And you can be rest assured, it will all be extremely important.
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