These thoughts will never be finished for me. Her influence continues with me daily and I am deeply thankful for the time she took to be MY MOM, and to love me like did, always unconditional, and always putting me before herself.
Happy Birthday mom.
Thanks for...
Singing “Practice makes Perfect” and pretending to hit the wrong notes) and “Kid talk” (the boy part) with us.
Buying me chicken pot pies and Kraft dinner when it was just us for dinner.
Remembering that I love cherry, vanilla, Dr. Pepper frosties from The Frigid Cream- even last August
Teaching me to shave my legs
Worrying about me.
Putting a blanket and a pair of coveralls in my car
Explaining sex to me
Buying me the glasses that I liked because you knew it was important for me to feel pretty
Sending me so many little notes in the mail and collecting things like sample credit cards to mail us
Loving my son
Knowing that a girl really needs her mother in times of hurting
Packing for me and cleaning my kitchen when it was disgusting
Doing things for me that were really hard work- because you just wanted to take care of me
Teaching me to love AUTUMN
Giving me your favorite word as my middle name
Sharing your heart with me even when I was young
Being a home away from home for my friends
Driving me to State music, in Concordia, 4 years in a row, and paying for a hotel so I wouldn’t have to wake up early and sing with a tired voice- and always thinking I deserved an AP…and waiting until I was a senior for a I+ …being so proud EVERY time.
Crying with me when I lost my baby
Getting to know my husband- really investing in him
Calling me your little “Tiffin-Annie”
Teaching me to dress modestly
Being my biggest fan
Keeping envelopes in your desk of things ready to mail to your daughters and grandchildren
Buying the stuff I really wanted
Panties in my stocking
Making dance team costumes (for 16 girls) even though you didn’t want me to even be on dance team
Giving me toys that were mine as a child for my son to play with
Reading to me
Helping me write the next chapter at the end of “James and the Giant Peach”
Being the person I could brag about myself to
Teaching me how to teach kids equivalent fractions using a piece of paper folded in a hundred directions
Cleaning up the mess when I baked cookies and got tired of it in the middle
Being “strict”
Flinging your arm across the seat of the car whenever you slammed on the breaks to hold me in
Taking me shopping after Christmas and buying me things I loved
Hugging me- lots- tightly
Taking me on a ferry boat ride because you thought it would be fun for me…it was!
Wrestling
Letting me cook for you
Always thinking that I deserve the best whether it was quality basketball shoes to
wear when I sat on the bench, or my husband
Knowing what I like
Laughing at yourself- helping me learn to laugh at myself
Saying, “You still have to have babies!” while proceeding to lift whatever heavy item I was formerly trying to move.
Buying Payton the most fun toys!
Planning my wedding
Getting the water stains off of my dishes
Listening
Telling me your hurts for other people, and sharing how you try to help them
Writing to/about me in journals
Singing hymns around the piano with us, making us sometimes
Building forts on snow days- and letting us keep them up forever!
Experiments
Taking pictures of your children and grandchildren
Finding the JOY in circumstances
Making me made-to-order clothes, including swimsuits, and ball gown from the 1880’s
Teaching me to ‘cast out tens’ so that I could learn to add more quickly
Reading whole chapters of books to me (in jr. high) to get me interested so I could finish the book and write the report that night, and reminding me not to procrastinate the next time, and doing it again when I did
Letting me paint my room the color of a Care Bear
Valuing what I would want to know about you when you left this world
Singing, “You are My Sunshine, My only Sunshine” to me a bedtime…and I believed it.
Playing in the leaves at the cemetery with me…when I was 19, and filling your truck with bright RED ones to take home
Missing me
Praying with me when I ask Jesus into my heart
Sending me to camp
Being my friend.
I love you
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3 comments:
Tiff ....
I think I cried through this whole post. She was a very important person and I have many many fond memories of her as she influenced my life growing up. She was a mother to a lot of us ... and I will always treasure my memories of her ... especially of Computer Class :) She would get so excited WITH us as we made discoveries. It was fun watching her reliving that excitement through us. I love you.
I have been thinking about you all today!! Keeping you in my heart and prayers..
I'm with you on the "these thoughts are far from complete" How to ever say thank you enough. I hadn't thought of some of the things that you did, it was really special to read your list and compare. Thanks so much for sharing it. Some things I would add for today: thanks for showing me how to be a great teacher, at least setting the ideal, I may need that in the near future and I wish you were here to show me the way as I walk in it. Thank you for speaking your mind and letting me hear it. It is good to know how your mind worked, mine often is dissatisfied with the status quo too and I'm glad I am not alone in wanting to change what is wrong with the world. Thanks for all your singing, what a funny thing that I never thought I would say, but I am ever so grateful. Thank you for running the race, not with perfection, but with perseverance. You made it seem obtainable for me.
Thank you Jesus for your constant care, for your eyes to find a way to be grateful and for the ways that you show your love to us, like knowing for sure that some of our thank you's were expressed to our Mom, what a sweet expression of Your love to us.
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