Thank You Mom

I never really realized until Parenting. Illustrated with Crappy Pictures pointed it out. In her most recent post she said that parents are rock stars. Oh my goodness is she right! It fit perfectly into my craptastic day with a sick kid. I could relate to pretty much every item that she talked about. Especially after fully intending to eat breakfast that day it ended up being my lunch. I told my husband, "See! This is why I don't usually even bother to try to eat breakfast!"

As I was thinking about what happened with Keegan being all sick it made me realize that you never stop being a parent & you never stop being a rock star. My Mom happily (ok, maybe not "happily") cleaned up Keegan's diarrhea disaster & gave him a bath & let me finish eating my dinner. Her own mother was in the middle of eating & was trying to get in the middle of it (Granny always has to get in the middle of everything!) & she kept telling her to go away & finish her food.

My Mom & I didn't get along that great while I was living at home. We still have our moments but since I moved out & got married things changed big time. I started working with her soon after that & I think we developed more of a mutual respect for one another. It helped that even though we worked together all day we both went home to separate places.

This past year especially my Mom has been a rock for me. It has been a pretty rough year. So much stress & worry about my health, especially while I was pregnant. Worry about what would happen with my job & then when we realized that unless a miracle happened I wouldn't have a job to go back to the worry of how are we going to make it? What are we going to do?

Though there have been times when she's added more stress it's been great having someone to talk to & who offers up suggestions. I've never really cooked but now I'm trying to cook more. She's always a phone call away when I need help figuring out how to do something. I spent most of the day Sunday at her house working on this craft project that popped into my head. I've never spray painted anything in my life so she had to help me out a little bit. The next day I had to use the hot glue gun & yes, I had to call her to ask her questions about that too.

It's sad that at almost 29yrs old I am finally starting to become interested in the things that my Mom has always been incredibly talented in & tried to teach me when I was younger. I kind of enjoyed baking when I was younger but for some reason just did not like to cook. I did love to make crafts though. When I was little she would have a Christmas Craft Sale almost every year & we were always going to craft faires. I would make pot holders, ornaments & beaded magnets to sell. I loved making stuff.

My Mom is the most crafty person I know. She can make ornaments, wreaths, flower arrangements, sew just about anything, with or without a real pattern (she often makes her own). I figure the potential has to be inside me somewhere to do all these things like she does. I was crafty as a child, why can't I be now?

I tried to learn to crotchet after I was first put off work. I kept seeing all these adorable baby hats & what not & I had time on my hands sitting at home so I thought I could do it. It just pissed me off! I was cussing up a storm & wanting to throw the damn thing across the room. I decided that crocheting was not for me. I also think that spray painting is not for me either because that has been the one thing about my creation that I have hated.

I'm feeling pretty proud of myself & I think my Mom is actually a little impressed too. She asked me tonight where I saw this from & decided to make it. I told her it came from my head. I saw where someone had made something out of the same materials & it started the same way but her finished product was quite a bit different from mine. I thought her thing was neat & then the night before surgery when I couldn't sleep this popped into my head. I can't share what it is yet because I'm making it for my cousin's baby shower which is this Saturday. I am taking pictures along the way & I fully intend to share after the shower is over. I was so irritated with the spray painting on Sunday though that I said I'm going to tell my cousin that I don't care if she likes it or not, she better use the damn thing haha. Not only is this the first thing that I have made in well over 15yrs but this was my own idea & I thought it would be neat to make her something.

It's kind of funny but for most of my life whenever someone has mentioned that there was any similarity between my mother & I, I didn't like it. Yet now, as I get older, I find myself wishing I was more like my Mom. I actually think that as I am getting older I am becoming more like my Mom. If I could be half the mother she was, I think my kids will be lucky. My Mom stayed at home with us until I was in high school. She was always there doing stuff with us, teaching us things, making amazing food. Now that I'm at home, I especially want to be more like her. I'm not quite sure how she did it, it's not easy, but on days when I'm really productive I sure feel proud. Even with the puking incidents on Tuesday I managed to get most of the laundry done, have dinner coming out of the oven as Jon walked in the door & finish the major step on my project.

I may not be anywhere close to my Mom's Rock Star level, she's more like a Rock Legend & I'm still playing out of my garage but all Rock Stars have to start somewhere right?