Thanks, Mom & Dad...

(Picture of Mom dishing out food to all 6 of her kids (I'm the one with the hat, with the red hair peeking out, my back is to the camera)--this was taken in the 80s (1985?) at City Park across from the Zoo in Denver)



As is usual with me, I got into some "deep thoughts" this evening as I was doing laundry. First off, I hate doing laundry--not because it's housework but rather because I don't have my own washer and dryer (something I curse each time I do my laundry) so I am forced to use one in the basement of my apartment complex. Of course, I'm glad I don't have to lug my bags of dirty clothes across the street to a laundromat, however, I hate finding random, stiff hairs every now and again on top of the dryer downstairs. Eeew. But I digress.

So, back to my deep thinking---I have been writing all freaking day for my Women's Studies course and have been reading about women all over the world and our different circumstances. Frankly, it's depressing--and anyone who says otherwise has obviously not taken a Women's Studies course...we women have been through a lot! And our mother's mothers, man, did not have it easy.

(Picture of my sister, Jama & me (the baby with the red fuzz on her head and my Mom)

Anyway, it got me thinking about how grateful I am for my mom-- Really in awe of her in someways. Now, I've always been grateful for my mom (perhaps not as much as I should have been when I was growing up, but I was naive and stupid at that time...duh.) But now that I am "grown-up" (more in some ways than others) I am finally seeing the bigger picture. Heck, I am having a hard enough time supporting myself and "the animals" (how I lovingly refer to my cat and dog...I realize I am just two cats away from becoming a bit creepy---again, I digress)and at my age my mom already had two kids and husband to worry about. I don't know how she did it---and then to eventually have SIX KIDS....! How on earth did she manage to give us a Christmas every year? And not only that we all took some kind of music lesson (I took piano for 6 and flute for 4--although you would never know it now...lol). And of course we all had proper swimming lessons at the local pool. All this on two teacher's salaries--two teacher's in WYOMING--wow. My mom told me a few years ago that when I was quite small they were worried about possibly losing the house, but we never ever knew it. Grant it, I did have a lot of hand me downs, but I was the youngest of the girls and loved all the clothes I got from it. And yes, there were some things I didn't get to do simply because the funds were not there, but overall, I had a good childhood and got to do a lot of what I wanted. I will always be grateful for my parents giving me that in spite of not being very well-off. The irony of course is that my parents started making pretty decent money AFTER I moved out...something which irked me at the time, but now I think it is a reward for their efforts.



(Mom & Dad and Jama way back in the day)


Anyway, that's what I was thinking about today---I think we should all take a step back and say a prayer of gratitude for our Mom's and Dad's--they did their best and we're lucky they did.