An Ode to My Mother on Her Birthday

This is me and my mom. She kind of really great. I like her a lot.

Today is her birthday. If I was a really great daughter, I'd have picked out the perfect present and sent it to her a month ago, with the admonition NOT TO OPEN IT until her birthday. Which she'd then ignore huffily and open it, because no one's going to tell her what to do! That is, she'd do that if she was anything like her eldest son, Chris.

But she's not, so she'd wait until her birthday, and then she'd open her present and it'd be perfect, and we'd be talking about it for 365 days (or 366 days, as 2013 is a leap year, of course), until her birthday next year, when I'd get her the perfect present again, and blah blah blah, etc etc etc.

But I'm just merely a great daughter, so this is my present this year. My gift to my mother - some words and a blown up picture of a head shot that I think is darling of us, but that she may not like, I don't know. But I thought I'd take advantage of what I'm good at, and gift-giving is not a strong suit of mine.

And let's be honest - I want to give my dear mother something awesome, but really all I can think is how she's given me quite a lot in my life:

My love of crossword puzzles.

Her hot vintage burgundy leather boots (maybe 1.5 sizes too small, but I still wear them when my feet can take it...)

The last piece of pie/cake/brownie/etc. on any given occasion.

My half curly/half frizzy hair. Thanks.

An ice cream cake for my latest birthday. The best.

My favorite Spring and Fall jacket. You know the one. Blue and green geometric shapes. AKA my irresistibility cloak. Opposite of an invisibility cloak - when I wear it, people can't take their eyes off me. Proven fact.

My green eyes (through her blue eyes and her mom's green eyes - so, genetics. I'm giving her credit for genetics here).

The strange and sometimes annoying habit of rearranging letters in words to make other words. Honestly, I lose focus on my surroundings sometimes because I get so distracted by the mental rearranging. It has its perks, though - I'm extremely good at Text Twist and similar games.

My love of reading - particularly of historical fiction. She's the reason I love the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Silk Vendetta. She gave me my first taste of Victoria Holt historical fiction. Bless her soul.

On that note - when I read Pride & Prejudice for the first time in high school, I stayed up until 2am finishing it. When I was done, I came out of my room and found mom on the computer - she couldn't sleep, so she was playing a card game. I immediately started gushing about the book and she smiled and laughed, reminiscing on the same feelings she had when she first read it. We loved Mr. Darcy together and that validated my future crushes on literary characters.

Mom also gave me an eye for interior design - put more broadly, it's an ability to see and create beauty. She taught me how to make something look beautiful. She taught me how to decorate a house. She taught me how to plant flowers.

Mom taught me how to do math - basic math equations as distraction during church. Who does that? My mother. And I loved it. Too bad that love didn't last long past Algebra I.

She taught me how to paint. And more particularly, she taught me how to peel off wallpaper. How'd she do that, you ask? By having me peel the wallpaper off my bedroom walls, her bedroom walls, and anywhere else we found wallpapered walls. I'm really good at peeling off wallpaper with just a spray bottle of water and a paper peeler. None of those fancy steaming machines for me! Sweat and tears, that's how a real girl peels wallpaper. Mom taught me that.

My mom once taught me how to make fudge. It's been important twice in my life, and that makes it important enough to mention here.

I got A LOT of other things from my mom, but I suppose the most important thing is that I got a really good sense of self from her. I got a strong self-confidence from her, because I knew that she loved me for exactly who I am, and because she saw the best in me. I got a good sense of humor because she laughed at my jokes. I gained a love for womanhood because she is an amazing woman. I have a deep and abiding love of family from her because she's my family, and I love her dearly.

Happiest of birthdays, mother dear! I love all 3 dimensions of you!