A Mama’s Day Message
With so much throwing back on Thursdays these days, we were recently inspired to dig through our old family photo albums for some special gems to help us honor our mama’s and grandmama’s this Mother’s Day!
We begin with our grandmama’s:
They were rockstars of women who spoiled us, hosted sleepovers that we still talk about, gave us one dollar bills from their wallets, helped us make sparkly Valentines even though the glitter got stuck in the carpet, taught us how to cheat at cards, how to dance to Marty Robbins, the lyrics to El Paso and the name of every bird at the feeder and flower in the garden.
I don’t have any fancy stories to tell you about our grandmamas. I don’t recall any Norman Rockwell moments of sitting on a porch with a white-haired lady imparting glorious wisdom upon me. Zac doesn’t either.
But I can tell you that fabric in a tiny floral pattern always makes me think of hand-made summer night gowns; that no matter how much I love my Cardinals, I’ll never talk too much smack about the Cubbies; that I’ll always be prone to shopping on Fridays.
We know that microwave popcorn is best when its burnt and served in an old wooden bowl. That ding dongs should be kept in the freezer. That you should butter the bread when making a lunch meat sandwich.
Bingo and church and the smell of homemade spaghetti sauce will always warm our hearts, and break them a little too.
So really, what we’ve learned from our grandmama’s is that life is quite simple. That we don’t need much. Because it doesn’t take much. Look at all those memories and lessons and things that rush back when something smells like grandma’s house. None of them are fancy. None of them are expensive, or complicated. Life just requires a little appreciation, the counting of your blessings and a knack for finding happiness – contentedness – in the family that’s growing around you.
Next we have the mamas:
Which is kinda hard to write about actually, even for someone like me who could write a book about nothing.
Because what do you say about your mama?
That they showed us to be… who? Who we are? Exactly who we are. Our sense of humor, our kindness, our manners, our tempers, our constant need to help everyone and fix everything.
That they taught us…what? Everything? Everything we know. Including the things they didn’t know they were teaching us, didn’t know how to teach us but somehow managed to, the things we refused to learn from them, learned on our own, then wished we have learned at the first opportunity.
That they inspire…what? Each part of our lives? Each and every part – our marriage, our careers, the way we drive, the flowers we plant in our garden, the things we cook for dinner every night, the way we talk to strangers in line at the store.
Everything. All of it. Is because of our mama’s and their mama’s.
I guess you could say all of those mama’s shaped our hearts. Shaped them, filled them up, and left just enough room for us to fill in the last little piece…
As we prepare to welcome our own baby, I am more thankful than ever to have the examples and memories and love of all these very special, very loved mamas.
The grandmas were right…it’s the little things:
The very little, very precious things. It’s the family growing around you.
People keep asking me if I’m nervous. How could I be? This mama’s heart was shaped by the best of the best. If I have been taught anything, it is how to be a mama.
Baby Medema is expected on Thanksgiving Day.
Happy Mother’s Day to you all.
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