Thankful #7

A Mother Who Taught Me Well (especially how to clean)
I can't express enough gratitude to my mom who taught me so much! Here are a few things I'm especially grateful for:

--Teaching me how to clean. When it was our turn for dishes, we cleaned the entire kitchen: stove, microwave, counter tops, wiping the table, and doing the dishes. Mom taught me that you have to put a little "elbow grease" into things and really scrub. I loved the fact that we had a chore chart growing up(not then I didn't!) to teach us responsibility. We cleaned baseboards, fans, blinds, walls, etc. No, we weren't slaves, we were just taught well. I was especially grateful for this as I had to clean out our old apartment. Steven said, "I'm sure glad your mom taught you how to clean." And I am. Having a clean home makes me feel so good.

--Teaching me to love reading and school. My mom read to me ever since I was a baby and it's taught me to love reading! I truly believe reading helps with grammar, spelling, and writing. She also taught me how important education is by going back to school at the age of 40 (I think that's when she went back) and completing her bachelor's degree in English. She is now teaching at a high school where she AND my dad both teach.

--Teaching me not to judge. She always told me "love the sinner, not the sin." She learned this from her mother as well who was an amazing woman but died of breast cancer in May of 2000 (I'm horrible with dates but I'm pretty sure it was around then!).


--Teaching me the importance of family. My mom was an AMAZING mom and still is. She wasn't the type of mom that loved when her kids went back to school after the summer, she dreaded it. She would always just load us kids up and go to the beach. In high school if I didn't want to go to school, she let me. She did this with all of the kids. Of course it didn't happen all the time but she understood that we needed a break. She said if she could do it all over again (raising us kids) she would do it in a heartbeat. I love when the holidays come around and she has all of our drawings, poems, and decorations laminated and hung up around the house. Every Christmas when we're decorating the tree I pull out this ridiculous-looking ornament that I made and ask her why she keeps it! She just laughs and tells me to just wait until I have kids and then I'll know why she keeps it. One of my favorite memories of just me and my mom was when she would pick me up from kindergarten (I got out in the morning) and we'd go home, spread my pink blanket out on the living room floor, eat lunch and watch "Little Mermaid"


Anyway, the list could go on and on but those are just a few of the reasons why I'm grateful for my mom.