Mother's Day

I missed talking to my mom yesterday.  First it was too early, then we went to church, then she was in church, then it was suddenly 11 pm here-- 9 pm there.  I called,  but no one answered.  =(  It's a sad thing not to get to talk to your mom on Mother's Day.

But I did think about her, and her mother, and my mother in law, and my other grandmother.  here are some things I thought.

My mother is amazing.  She has not been handed easy children to raise, but she has done a wonderful job.  She can cook anything, sew anything, keep her house beautiful, offer recipes over the phone, and cater weddings.  She is creative and an amazingly hard worker.  I hope I can be like her, someday.  =)  If she had not been a mother I wonder sometimes what she would have been.  Maybe a private investigator, or  CIA operative, maybe a stewardess or travel agent, maybe a seamstress, or perhaps a school teacher.  I don't know.  I had a really good time with her in Panama and on a cruise to Mexico a couple of summers ago.  Besides being a wonderful mother, she is just really fun to be with.  (Oh.  Sorry.  I know that last sentence should not have ended with a preposition.  She's also Really good at grammar! =)  She grew up in Provo- on 9th East, right across the street from BYU- so after many years in the frozen waste lands on Minnesota, she is now back home.  =)

Her mother is my Grandma Jones, and I lived with her my freshman year of college.  She grew up in Delta Utah (they grow pomegranates there, I believe) and worked in a bank for many years.  (Secretary to the President, I think?) She had a tiny bedroom in her basement with a bookshelf above the bed that was well-stocked with Nancy Drew, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, and many others.  She had dried apricots in her freezer- which I helped myself to more often than I should have- Lladro figurines in her living room, and roses on her fence that I loved.  The heavily-scented evergreen bushes by the side of her driveway are, to me, the scent of Utah.  From her I learned to keep my underwear drawer tidy, that "beautiful" matters, and that spending time and thought on gifts is worth while.  She seems like a queen in my mind, tall and dignified.

My mother-in-law is the kind everyone must wish for. (Sorry-  another preposition at the end.)  She compliments my skills with my children, tells me my house is lovely, and gives hugs all around.  =)  Very nice.  My only complaint?  She has a spotlessly clean house, so I have this standard of perfection for when she comes to visit.  Sometimes I just tell myself, "It's ok.  You have kids, and are running 24/7.  She'll understand."  And she probably does.  It would just be nice if my house was as clean as hers.  Or if I found dirty socks on her living room floor just once.  =)  But all around, she wonderful.

My Dad's mom is Grandma Crookston.  She was tiny-- apparently she fit in a quart jar when she was born, and she did not ever get very big.  She had this contraption in her bedroom on which she would hang upside down every day.  I think it helped her back.  She had a jar of pink and white peppermints that I loved, and when I got married she gave me the jar.  Her house was old-- one of my some-number-of-great grandpas built it, I think in Brigham Young's time.  And it had the most amazing climbing tree in the side yard.  There were kittens by the back steps, and cows in the back pasture.  I stayed with her one summer and loved it.  From her I learned that it's good to have cookies in the cookie jar- preferable snicker doodles- that there is nothing wrong with taking the chipped china dishes into the yard to play tea party, and that if you shred cat tails in the yard, you have to clean them up.  (Not easy!)  She grew up next to the Cardston Alberta temple, and she loved it.  Temples, peonies and petunias make me think of her.   As I was weeding the front flower bed on Saturday I thought of her checking my work, and how she would make me get out even the tiny ones before I was finished.  =)

I have been blessed by a whole lot of wonderful mothers.  And wonderful children!  Aahh... life is good!