59 things My Mother taught me.

My Mum is having a birthday soon. On Sunday in fact, (along with my twin nieces out west).I would like to commemorate the occasion by listing some of the unique things i learned from her over the years. For no specific reason *giggle* I chose 59 as the magic number.

• #59 --- Closets! The first thing to look for in a house is ample CLOSETS!(we lived in a salbox style farmhouse for 9+ years, three bedroom, and 2 closets. TWO, one little one in Mom's room, one little on in the hall Ghastly!)
• #58 --- For goodness sake, learn to laugh at yourself. Life has too many potholes, must have some smiles!
• #57 --- A clean home is a quiet home, pleasant, and calm. ( that's the theory anyway, we constantly strive to reach that goal!) :)
• #56 --- Nothin' says lovin' like somthing from the oven!
• #55 --- Embrace Your femininity. Embrace your Masculinity. In this time of fuzzy gender lines, and the breakdown of marraige, Mom has always been very good at showing us how to become Godly, feminine, Women, and helping the boys become strong, godly, Manly men. :)
• #54 --- God doesn't make mistakes, He uses everything possible to teach us what we need to learn, to mold us into the people He wants us to be.
• #53 --- On that note, "Semper Gumby"! ( Always Flexible)
• #52 --- How to Crochet
• #51 --- How to Crosstitch
• #50 --- How to hand sew and machine sew
• #49 --- How to Knit ... (that one didn't stick so well)
• #48 --- How to clean a bathroom right! (never got around to LIKING it though ) :)
• #47 --- How to care for babies, and rambunctious boy toddlers. DAVE AND JAKE
• #46 --- How to cook, fried chicken, pancakes, brownies, pizza, yeast rolls, and christmas cookies are the top faves.
• #45 --- Shopping in Bulk! AND reading the unit prices! :)
• #44 --- "He who walks with the wise grows wise,
• but a companion of fools suffers harm" (Proverbs 13:20)
• #43 --- We do NOT leave the house in our PJ's ....usually :P
• #42 --- You cannot feel ready for the day until your bed is made!
• #41 --- How to type properly ...(that didn't stick so well either)
• #40 --- Honor your Husband
• #39 --- The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. :) A well fed hubby is a happy hubby. :)
• #38 --- A love for plants. Mom loves to plant flowers and to bring them inside. She used to have a garden every year almost. Her favorite plants for flower boxes are impatients geraniums and petunias.
• #37 --- How to decorate for the season. Mom always has, summer and spring towels, mugs, wreaths, and signs, and then the same for fall, and of course plenty of snowy stuffs for winter and Christmas!
• #36 --- Christmas Trees must be done deeeelicately. LOL. Just the right amount of wifely input, then we SHUSH, and get the coffee and cookies ready for when it's over. :)
• #35 --- Curtains are a necessity!
• #34 --- Cookies are medicinal
• #33 --- March Mental Illness Week. ( every spring we got a week of from homeschooling for this. ) heehee
• #32 --- How to utilize every piece of furniture to its full potential. ( we lived in a small house for 8 people for a long time, and no closets, and not alot of room, she had a bookshelf made from boxes and duct tape, old, broken dishwasher = extra counter space and ample Tupperware storage, plastic bins galore in the attic, a desk made of file cabinets and an old door, a Piano seconds as shelving, the top of the dryer, with a foam pad with a quilted cover, makes and excellent baby changing table. The heat from the dryer kept the wipes and pad warm in the winter! We even tried to refill the baby wipes with homemade ones! *some things are better store bought!* lol
• #31 --- Never speak badly of your hubby in front of the children. My mom is not a saint, and i know she got mad and wanted to spout and vent, but we NEVER heard it. I do not ever remember hearing a bad word about my Father spoken behind his back by my Mom.
• #30 --- How to get Pen out of dress clothes. ( one year AFTER she finished washing AND drying the Easter clothes, she found out the there was a pen in someone's pocket, and man, i found out EVERY method for taking out ink!
• #29 --- Love Languages, find them and use them.
• #28 --- Family First, always, (Your friends come and go, your family you are stuck with forever, so you better learn to get along!) :)
• #27 --- Birthdays are very important and should ALWAYS be celebrated. We always got our favorite dinner and desert for our birthdays. Spaghetti and meatballs, and strawberry shortcake!
• #26 --- Yahtzee
• #25 --- Scrabble
• #24 --- solitaire, gin rummy, and many other various card games. She and Aunt Christine played these games and taught Kate and i to play and we have spent MANY hours, as a foursome, or twosome playing very competitively!
• #23 --- Coffee, spice rounds and music make Christmas morning worth the 6am wake up call from the youngest sibling. :)
• #22 --- REAL maple syrup is the only maple syrup. *i think this has slipped some lately, very sad, very sad indeed*
• #21 --- "It takes alot of loving to make a house a home" (From a sampler that hung on the living room for many many moons.) :)
• #20 --- Thank You cards are Proper etiquette, dumping sugar into your water goblet and stirring it with the soup spoon however, is NOT. heehee
• #19 --- How to have a party. We didn't host alot of "parties" but when we had lots of people "gettin' together" we always had plenty of food, there were decorations, flowers, room for people to sit and visit, games outside, and not alot of leftovers! lol.
• #18 --- How to manage 4 overly creative, energetic children while Dad was gone for a month or more while in the national guard. (she got it down to a tea, i still don't know how she did it! Except i do remember alot of play dates with the Marden's, and LOTS of playing outside. Smart woman LOL I used to wonder what on earth they could do in the house for 2 hours straight that we couldn't join in on. NOW i know! Coffee, adult type snacks, and ADULT talk! Talking to another person who is at your eyelevel, and understand 3 syllable words, and doesn't whine. yuh, makes more sense now. :)
• #17 --- Cardinals are Mom's favorite of the winter birds. Then the tiny chickadees. I wonder if Eric remembers that? heehee
• Eric's Chickadee tail
• #16 --- Spit on a napkin, instant washcloth! :P
• #15 --- Mice are NOT good pets! (especially when they live iin the walls already) heehee
• #13 --- How to convince a lost Cow it does NOT want to be in our yard, the pasture is much better. :)
• #12 --- A woman's Highest and most important calling is to Mother. Be it her biological children, adopted children, siblings, grandchildren, friends, wherever the children come from, Women were born to Mother them. We are also commanded and created to be Keepers of the Home. If you work At home, FROM home, or out of the Home. If your kids school in or out of home, your home is your domain to keep, to maintain, to create into a soft place for the family to land. A safe place for children to be children. For teenagers to be themselves, for a family to learn how to Love, serve, and find Jesus.
• #11 --- Boys, when your sister bursts out into tears for no good reason, just walk away! And so starts the "time of the month" talks :P GAH!
• #10 --- Creative ways to hide Christmas gifts! VERY hard to find, and never in the same spot. Sneaky mommy :P
• #9 --- "Children are a Heritage from the Lord, Blessed is the man who's quiver is full."
• #8 --- Only God can know how big each family's quiver is. ;)
• #7 --- Things are things, and can be replaced. Like brand new cars with scratched paint, or special peter rabbit books with puff paint on them, lost sand dollar charms, broken snow globes, like Barbie corvettes that have been sat upon, or like cars that die, and run into things, and chase deer.
• #6 --- Watch for attack telephone poles!
• #5 --- Never forget the price of our freedom. Pray for our troops, love them, love their families, pray for them, support them. Show your American pride.
• #4 --- Be ready to help, willing to serve, attentive to the needs of others. This is how Jesus Loves us, and we must love each other, and the only way to find real fulfillment.
• #3 --- How to spell caffine..Cafiene?..Cafeen..Caf?..Caffeine!!
• #2 --- How to laugh, how to make the best of a situation. How to enjoy the little things, how to be a real person, while making such a huge impact on so many lives.and the number one thing I learned from my mom?
• #1 --- Cherish LIFE. From the cranky old lady down the street, to the tiniest unborn child, all LIFE is created in God's image, and must be honored, cherished and treated with care. We must stand up for the children with no voice, be fathers and mothers to the fatherless. Be a voice against the killing of the next generation. Also, we MUST cling tight to our families. We MUST uphold the institute of marriage, we must teach our children to love family, to hold on tight to siblings, and grandparents, honor our parents, treat our families with loyalty, honor and respect.

And those are some of the things i have learned from my Mom. not that i'm good at them LOL, but she did pass it on, and i wanted everyone to know .

So, Happy Birthday Mom, hope it's a fabulous day, and many more, i think, how old are you? Are there many left? *lol*
(now i am going to hide so she can't kill me heehehheheee)