I had planned to write a post today that included a compilation of my favorite podcasts. Lucky for you I’m super sick of writing out lists and I am kind of sick of most of the podcasts I subscribe to with the exception of MindPump.
So today I think I am going to write about myself. I mean, it is my blog after all. Each post does have something to do with me, my life, my likes, my family. Even if you’re just learning what books I like to read or what colors I have chosen for my kids’ rooms. I’d like to focus on telling a little story about myself and how I came to be who I am, every once in a while. Now, my birthday is coming up next month so I have about 34 (eek!) years worth of stories to tell. Some are boring, some are sad, some are hilarious.
In honor of Mothers’ Day coming up, I think I’d like to write out a few of my favorite motherhood memories. Not my experience as a mom, but my experiences with my own moms.
Yes, moms.
I am so lucky, I have two moms. A bit of a back story: My parents were high school sweethearts. My moms were in the same class, in my small home town school. My dad is a couple of years older than my moms. I was not a planned child, my parents tried to make it work for me but in the end, they were way too young to try to make a marriage work and they divorced. Hey, when you know its not right, you just know. Luckily, you also just know when it is right so like a month later my dad married my mom! I was two, so I grew up calling both moms, mom. And I’m glad for that! Not everyone is fortunate enough to grow up like I did, with two moms, a dad, a step dad, 8 grand parents, and for a long long time, 3 living great grandmothers.
Anyway, I digress. I could go on and on forever about the ins and outs of my crazy huge blended family. I have like 100 cousins. I grew up surrounded by so much love (and lots of exclusive cousin clubs that not everyone got to be a part of. HAHAHA).
I spent one week at my dads house and one week at my moms house, from the time I was two years old until I graduated from high school. I got luggage for Christmas once. So, I never really got homesick ever as a kid. Cool, right?
One of my favorite memories with my mom Tammy, is trekking out to the “secret” daffodil spot on our farm when I was probably 6 or 7. I spent my time on a 300+ acre cattle farm (it also had some chicken houses, but no chickens after I was like 5 maybe), complete with old falling down barns and houses where my step-grandparents and great grandparents had lived. The property was a mix of pasture and woods, and if you walked out past two ponds, I remember a trail going down a hill where there were tons and tons of daffodils. I always called them buttercups but I have since in my adult life been informed that buttercups are weeds and my buttercups are daffodils. This was a special thing I did with my mom just the two of us, and I remember always thinking we were trekking out to an enchanted forest to pick flowers and hopefully find fairies and ladybugs (I wasn’t scared of them then) and butterflies. I still love daffodils and I am always reminded of those special afternoons with my mom when I see them!
A favorite memory with my mom Michelle, is grocery shopping. Sounds silly, I know! At my dad’s house, I am the oldest of 4. The line up goes me, my sister (4.5 years younger than me), my brother Cam (8 years younger than me), and my brother Kev (10 years younger than me). So grocery shopping with mom while dad was at work (during the summer I guess because we were not at school) was an ordeal. My sister and I are chatterboxes and our brothers were still in diapers. So we would go to the store and mom would get us a box of a dozen donuts, and let us eat them while we shopped to keep us quiet. I guess she shopped really fast because a dozen donuts between four kids doesn’t last long. On the way home, whoever got to sit in the front seat (me or my sister) would be the snack helper. Mom would always buy a box of chicken in a biscuit crackers and squeeze cheese for us for the drive home. Me or Kels would always have to squeeze the cheese onto a cracker for everyone one at a time, and we would eat and chatter and sing along to 90’s country on the radio (and complain when John Denver came on, but now I love him so much because I go back to those moments with my mom!).
I was super lucky to have the love all around me that I did growing up! What are some of your favorite “mom” memories?