A Tribute

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

In celebration of the day (and because my mom is the greatest woman ever!) I thought I'd write a new list. :)

20 Things I learned from my mom!

1. It's better to give than to receive -- My parents would set up a "toy store" in their bedroom for us to choose gifts for our siblings. We'd go in one at a time and choose the toys we wanted to give to each other. I remember one year I went in and saw a Popple--which I desperately wanted!!! But I knew that my sister wanted one too, so (with some encouragement from my mom) I chose it for her. (In a happy twist, my parents had another Popple which they put out when my sister came in, and she chose it to give it to me!)

2. Take your vitamins -- My mom is a big fan of vitamins. ;) But really the lesson here, is that you have to take care of yourself, even amidst the craziness of life.

3. Lay flat on the floor and stretch -- This one also has a double meaning. My mom always tells me this when I have a sore muscle or I'm just really tense and stressed. I have a tendency to ignore it, or just stretch half-heartedly. So, yes, she means it literally. But she also taught me that problems work out better when you address them early.

4. It's okay to be yourself -- When I was little we always got an new dress and white shoes for Easter. I remember one year not finding any shoes I liked, and my mom finally realizing that I just didn't like white shoes. And while I thought that was a tragedy because I clearly HAD to get white shoes because I ALWAYS got white shoes, she reassured me that it was okay to get another color.

5. Stair laps are good for you! -- still not sure I totally believe this one.... :)

6. Music is important -- Not only was music and singing a big part of our life at home, but my mom often volunteered to do music in my classes in elementary school. Now, to be honest, I didn't always love that. Especially when we sang songs like "Delovely." (Seriously, there's a song called "Delovely!") But in the long run it was great to have her there and taught me how important music was.

7. There's more than one way to teach a lesson -- When my older sister moved out and wasn't there for me to talk to about boys, etc., I was worried about telling my mom because I thought she'd end up lecturing me. So we came up with a system. If I needed to tell her something and feel like I had a free pass I'd say, "Mom, I need you to be my sister for a minute." She understood and always listened openly...and always managed to get the motherly message across to me in the end somehow anyway. :)

8. Sometimes people surprise you -- Around the same time that my mom and I worked out the system mentioned (see above) I had my first kiss. I was SUPER nervous to tell her. I was expecting a little bit of a lecture and warning to be careful, but when I finally managed to spit out, "So *Brian kissed me." She followed with, "Did you kiss him back?" It was a great moment!
*names have been changed to protect the guilty. :)

9. Never stop learning -- Both of my parents worked as editors so we had some rather unusual dinner table conversations. Pulling out the kitchen dictionary to look up spellings, meanings, derivations, synonyms, etc. was not rare. (Yes, we had a kitchen dictionary).

10. Family is important -- We had family dinner 7 days a week. And you didn't miss that or Family Home Evening unless you had a really good excuse.

11. Be industrious! -- I don't think I've ever seen my mom bored. She's always working on something and moving forward to the next task. When we were kids we learned quickly not to go to mom complaining of boredom, because we would inevitably be met with "You could clean out a drawer!"

12. Find ways to do what you love -- My mom stayed at home to be more available to us, but that didn't keep her from doing what she loves. I don't remember a time when she didn't have many piano students. Even though she wanted to be home with her kids, she didn't give up her love of sharing music.

13. Building a testimony is a daily thing -- We had family scripture study every morning, family prayers twice a day, and family home evening every week. I've never had to doubt that my mother and father love the Lord. And that has been a huge part of my own strength in testimony.

14. If you know what's right, do it! -- I could think of a million examples of this, but the first comes to mind was when I was preparing to go to the temple. Like always when a good decision is made, Satan was there with plenty of opposition. But my mom came to my apartment one Sunday morning and reminded me that I knew it was right, and that because of that I could move forward with confidence.

15. It's important to serve others -- My mom makes amazing chicken noodle soup. And whenever we came home to that smell we began counting the hours until dinner time. However, often most or all of the soup got packed up into a tupperware and taken to a family in the area that needed some support. Though we were sad to see it go, we knew it was important to serve.

15.a. Service can make you feel better -- This is similar to the previous one. My senior year of high school I was highly involved in performing and competing on my flute and my mom was my accompanist. Even though she was going through chemo and radiation she never missed a performance. I'm sure that she felt like staying home and resting, but it meant a lot to me that she was there, and she claims it made her feel better. :)

16. There's always a solution, even if it's not the one you hoped for -- In high school when we had to be creative about asking/answering for school dances we often held brain-storming sessions at my house. And when we couldn't come up with anything my mom always had the solution -- a heart-shaped brownie pan!

17. When tough times come, fight! -- My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was a senior in high school. And never once did she let us see discouragement. She fought hard through surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation--and won! And we feel so lucky to have her with us still.

18. Even people you love most sometimes say the wrong thing, and it's okay -- Sometimes my mom says the wrong thing, and sometimes I say the wrong thing (usually the latter). But it's always okay because my mom has taught me to forgive.

19. You can laugh or you can cry! -- This is something my mom is famous for saying. She always encouraged us to look on the bright side and to stay positive.

20. It's okay if sometimes you choose to cry -- I talk to my mom a lot, and probably 50% of our conversations involve me crying. Mostly because she's the one person I know I can always cry over stupid things with and she won't judge me or be annoyed by it.

**BONUS** It's just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as it is to fall in love with a poor man! -- I haven't proven this one yet, but I'm working on it.

I love you mom!!!