scambled memories of mom

Seeing as how Mother's Day is just around the corner, It seems to me like a good time for memories of my childhood with my mom. Unfortunately, I was more of a daddy's girl, but still I was blessed with a wonderfully caring mother. It does take quite a woman to raise 6-8 girls in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with minimal chaos and plenty of fun with little income. She used to find games for family bonding, like strip poker, yes, strip poker. Of course, before the game we would all put on several layers of cloths, and since I was the youngest one playing, they let me cheat and wear necklaces out of yarn that I could take off in place of an item of clothing. She also made sure we were all together as a family at the dinner table every night, and Friday nights were extra special; we all piled all over the living room floor to watch TGIF and eat mom's homemade caramel popcorn. Mom was usually the culprit at the bottom of the water fights started indoors! And the icing fight at my little sister's 2nd birthday. We were cleaning icing off of stuff for weeks afterward. No matter how little money we had, she always made sure we had at least 2 pairs of new school cloths and a new backpack to start the year off with. Which brings me to my introduction of the game of hooky. I was in 2nd grade, and I don't know why she was driving me to school that day, I usually walked those 5 blocks to Emerson, but on the way, she asked me if I wanted to play hooky. Well, since at that time we had been playing card games a lot, I thought it sounded like a card game, so I said "Sure, how do you play?". I thought it was odd that she would be introducing a card game on the way to school, since we wouldn't be playing til later...then she drove right by the school. She then brought up the agreement that if I didn't miss school, and was making good grades, I could take a free day off each semester. Another thing I remember is mom and her music. I was raised on Reba Macentire, Garth Brooks, Guns & Roses, and AC DC. On the weekends, when she was ready for us to wake up, she would have the music blasting, and on Sunday mornings, dad would be making waffles or pancakes, sausage or bacon, eggs, or biscuits and gravy.

She always made sure we had everything we needed plus some. She always knew how to make us smile, and wished the best for all of us. She treated dads previous 2 children no different than her own and dad did the same with her previous 2. I didn't know I had half sisters until I was 12, and it just doesn't mean anything to us. She even took in two other girls on top of the 6 there already was. She is the most motherly person I know, and I am glad to have been raised by her.