I love my Mom. She is my Mommy dearest. Do I think she is weird? Well, maybe. We’ve always joked that someday I would write a book about her with the title “Mommy Weirdest”. Maybe this will be its start.
My Mom and I would joke about this each time she shared a “Diane Moment”. “Honey, you can put that one in your book about me someday,” she would often say. What does a “Diane Moment” mean in our family? It is one of those moments that makes us all giggle when it happens or when we hear about it because it is SO Mom. No one laughs harder at those stories than she does.
And right there you see one of the wonderful things my Mom has taught me…it is good to laugh at ourselves, at our mistakes, at our goofs.
Like the time she had the grocery boy unload all her groceries into her car only to get in the driver’s seat and realize the key didn’t fit…and it actually wasn’t her car.
Or the one where she rushed through the Burger King drive-thru on lunch hour, paying for her lunch but forgetting to pick it up. Even funnier is her attempt to go in and notify them of her mistake, only to find the workers too busy to listen as they tried to figure out the chaos it had caused.
Or the visit she took to my brother’s apartment. She was brushing her teeth before bed only to discover {horror #1} the white paste she had squirted on the toothbrush was actually Ben-Gay, and {horror #2} it was actually my brother’s roommate’s toothbrush!!
We know these stories because she shares them with us. She invites us to laugh with her. To even laugh at her. She is humble. She is open.
I believe that humility and openness are some of the ingredients that has kept my Mom’s heart soft and tender after a life with many trials, many heart breaks. You know how some people carry unforgiveness on their backs until you can literally see it round their shoulders? Or have resentment so deep in their hearts that you hear it taint each and every word they speak? My Mom doesn’t have that. And not because she doesn’t have reason to.
A soft heart in a tough woman. She wouldn’t say she is tough, but those that have been under her care or walked by her side would say she is. Another wonderful lesson she taught me…you don’t have to be hard to be strong.
My mom has taught me so many wonderful lessons, like…
It only takes a thrift store and an iron to look classy. If you compliment her on her outfit (which you likely would, she always looks nice), she will inevitable tell you how she found it at a thrift store, consignment shop or clearance rack. And she irons everything. Everything. I’ve even seen her iron her pajamas and once even some curtains in a hotel room that were driving her crazy.
Every party needs a theme. The picture says it all.
Sometimes the best way to care is just to listen. My mom is extremely caring. She listens. Not just hears you, but feels you. My brother once said he watched her talk to me on the phone while I was away at college and could see each and every emotion I was feeling on the other side…right there on my Mom’s face. It must be why so many people call her. Her line used to always be busy. Now with call waiting, it just rings and rings. Good listeners don’t flip to the other line.
All you need for a new recipe is leftovers, a can of cream soup, shredded cheese and crackers. And to give it a name, you list the main ingredients and stick ‘casserole’ on the end. Or if it comes out runny, end it with ‘stew’.
The lessons are too many to list. I’ve always appreciated my Mom, but nothing like I do now that I am a mom. I really don’t know how she did all she did.
Thank you Mom. For the mother you are. For the mother you help me to be. For the lessons and the laughs. I love you.
© 2012 – 2023, Danielle Peters. All rights reserved. Love it? Please share, pin, tweet or email but do not use my work without permission.
Leave a Reply