My Mother’s Day Ode

If you combined Mother Goose with Mary Poppins and threw in a dash of June Cleaver and a smidgen of Lucille Ball, you’d have the perfect recipe for my mother!

Let me explain the recipe to you:

I love that my mom is warm, thoughtful, resourceful, and makes everyone feel comfortable – like Mother Goose. I love that she cares about her family in practical ways, like the upkeep of the home, and having a nutritious dinner on the table at six sharp, like June Cleaver. I love that she cares deeply and knows what’s best for her children, all the while having a mysterious twinkle in her eyes like she knows something you don’t, like Mary Poppins. And I love that my mom can be uninhibited and silly like Lucille Ball. I love that she can laugh at herself – and when she thinks something is particularly funny, she wheezes like an asthmatic old man!

I’m sure it wasn’t easy to carry me around in her womb for a whopping ten months (yep- I was pretty comfortable in there), to nurse me or wake up multiple times a night, but she did it all without even blinking an eye. I love that my mom organized her life around me while I was growing up. She worked nights when I was very young so that she could be home with me during the day. I remember spending hours on our living room floor playing Candy Land and Memory, reading books, and going to Morningside Nature Center as a small child. My mother is a natural educator and never missed a teachable moment. I love that my mom always had a batch of cupcakes whipped up for every fund raiser or class party. I love that my mom didn’t miss a single dance recital or volleyball match or band competition or award ceremony for me or for my little brother. She was always there armed with her camera in one hand and tissues in the other. I love that my mom was tender enough to hug me and let me sob when a boy broke my heart, but strong enough to compress my wounds and rush me to the emergency room after I had a particularly vile disagreement with a tree house. I love that she feels just as at home editing my brother’s latest English paper as she does concocting pranks to play on her friends and family. I love that my mom is silly – she’s a pro at charades, she wiggled to the song Tootsie Roll while playing Dance Dance Revolution, and she wheezes like an asthmatic old man- making everyone else dissolve into hysterics as well!

I love all the memories that I have with her over the years – many of which may never be able to be explained. For instance, I love that the phrase, “Was it refrigerated?” Can still bring us both close to incontinence as we recall a particularly hysterical late night conversation held fifteen years ago. I love that I have and entire wall of cards displayed in my room– all handmade by my creative and crafty mother. I call it my wall of love and it serves as a reminder that even though I’m grown, I am never out of her thoughts.  I think the blend of Mother Goose, Mary Poppins, June Cleaver and Lucille Ball creates the perfect mother and I am very thankful that she really exists and that I get to call her mine.

Mom and Kelly

 

 

3 comments / Add your comment below

  1. I think your mom is pretty cool too! I still have the cards she made for our journeys in 2009/2010!!!

  2. Indeed! I have a wall of overflowing cards- my wall of love! My mom is pretty rad. Glad other people recognize her rad-ness as well!

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