Blame it on my mother

What a perfect post for the week leading up to Mother's Day, right? Don't you love my title? It may sound like I am going to blame my mother for all of my weaknesses but that would be bunk. My mother gave me all of my strengths.

She taught me how to discover the world thru reading. She taught me how to become better with each surfacing of every weakness, she also taught me how to dance with wild abandon--in the kitchen and behind the wheel of the car, how to sing in the kitchen, how to love black and white movies and other good media.

Because of her I know how to quote random movies, playfully roll around on the floor with my kids, how to laugh so loudly that your kids can hear it in the opposite side of the house and come running to see what is so funny, how to love the Lord, commit myself to truth and live it, how to be prepared and have a deep love of food storage, how to live abundantly on a budget, how to be content with the things I have and take care of them, how to emote and how to see myself as a daughter of God.

She showed me how gardening brings peace to a hectic life. This is something I rejected until I was 25 yrs old. When I was a teenager my mom would give me a choice--you can make dinner or you can work outside in the yard with me and your dad. I rolled my foolish teenage eyes at the thought of gardening and gladly set out to make dinner for the family.

She also was the world's best and most creative decorator. I remember how proud she was when she finished her home beautifying projects and how she liked to graciously show her friends what and how she did them. She watched HGTV regularly, subscribed to Southern Living and Better Homes and Garden. I was UNINTERESTED. I preferred Family Circle for the articles on fitness, nutrition, fashion, beauty and cooking.

My mom also loves rocks, she has asked for rocks, bricks, pavers and dirt ,for that matter, for every Mother's Day since I was a teenager. She'd make us stop on long trips when she'd see some gorgeous (to her eyes) rocks and load them into the back of the van. All of us kids lovingly mocked her but she got dirt and rocks for Mother's Day.

Then when I was 25 yrs old, my neighbor Chellae, talked me into starting a garden with her. I was hooked from the first moment despite reacting in a wussy girly squeaky way when I encountered worms. Six years later, I still hate worms and have to contain squeals but I LOVE gardening. I think it amuses my mother how obsessed I am with it. I went home for Christmas at fell in love with two magazines- Better Homes and Gardens and Garden Gate.

Becoming a homeowner has apparently unlocked and released the obsessive nature of decorating and gardening in me. The gardening was already there but the decorating...I have a confession. I am now an AVID HGTV watcher. I think about decorating in my sleep. I love decorating blogs. I have to restrain myself from browsing them all day. I also LOVE rocks. I find myself browsing the side of the road for rocks that don't look like they belong in anyone's yard or construction yard.

Well, my mother was in town a few weeks ago and boy did we have fun. We raided my rock pile in my yard (left my the guy who bought, renovated and flipped our house) and bordered more flower beds, we found FABULOUS deals at TJ Maxx--I only paid 25% of the original price for a gorgeous top grain leather pushback chair and Mom treated me to some beautiful bedding, we shopped for accessories and laughed so loud in some stores with my sister that we were afraid they might kick us out, planted my hibiscus plants fresh from QVC (she taught me how to shop QVC by the way), climbed up my countertops and rearranged some things on top of the cabinets, brainstormed on future projects, reworked some window treatments in the kitchen, spray painted some wrought iron (did I mention I am obsessed with wrought iron?). She got me out of my fear of putting holes in walls while we raided Sam's tool bag, broke out the drill driver thingy and put up some curtain holdbacks. We trampled on my lovely bedding and hung sweet little pieces on the wall above my bed and she did laundry for me everyday.

*Sigh*...*Bliss* I love that woman. It is a low down dirty shame that we live a 26 hr drive away (24 if she is driving).

However, now I am even more obsessed with decorating, gardening and staying on top of my laundry. I blame all that on my mother. Isn't she wonderful?

Pictures coming in the next blog post--maybe a wordless Wednesday sort of thing.