So, my Mom is fabulous - she is one of those hands-on, very creative moms. She took her job as mom very seriously without making it serious. She's an artist. She takes for granted the fact that not everyone automatically comes up with ideas that children will love! I was talking to her on the phone before "McKenzie Time" and mentioned that we might make bread. McKenzie and I have made bread and rolls more times than I can count. My mom brought up the idea of letting her make a bird's nest with eggs in it out of the dough. Had I ever encouraged McKenzie to make something out of the dough besides bread or regular shaped rolls? Nope (although I do have to give myself credit that I pretended the rolls were bunnies as we very gently rolled them up - so it wasn't all business). During the same phone conversation, McKenzie wanted some ideas from grandma of what to do for McKenzie time (we like to list all of our ideas up front so she can choose between them). My Mom immediately had an idea of ripping up paper and putting it on the ground however we wanted and then trying to step through the paper without touching it. This was just off the tip of her head. What?! Strange, right? Well, her idea won and my ideas of having a piano lesson, sewing a cape together, or playing "The Bubble Game" (Big Trouble) were kicked to the curb. Strange as it sounds, Grandma's idea was a huge success. We were laughing so hard as we tip-toed through the paper. I really majorly want to be that kind of creative mom. Unfortunately, it doesn't come as natural to al of us. Somehow I need to exercise my brain until this is precisely the way I think. If I'm a failure at it, well there's a bright side - my kids won't know until they're older that I got all of my ideas from Grandma. They'll have the childhood of my dreams.......the kind I had. P.S. It WAS my idea to add the food coloring......maybe I have it in me somewhere afterall.....I've just gotta find it.......that hidden gene.
As a side note, my mother also never yelled. Well, I can remember ONE time that she tried to yell. But, we were teenagers and deserved it and we were all pretty much shocked. We also found it quite uncomfortably funny at the same time. This is when I discovered - if you haven't yelled for 20 or so years, don't expect to be able to - ever. You've lost your chance. I don't think you could really call it a yell. So, to all the Mom's out there: if you want to be a yeller, start honing your skills now; Otherwise you may lose the ability all together and, depending on your preference, this could be tragic - because it will inevitably work against you years later when you try to pick up the lost art. Of course we can all laugh about this incident now and what makes it even more hilarious is that after her "yelling" session, Travis held up the reciever to the phone and said, "Uh, Mom, the phone is for you". So this is also a lesson to not judge someone when you hear them yelling at their kids on the other end of a phone. It could very well be their first time. Also, if you ever hear someone say "shut up" (I cringe as I type it since it was so off-limits growing up) you should not judge them. I believe the only time those words ever escaped my Mom's lips, randomly 1 1/2 hours away from home and mostly to shock us into laughter since we were old enough to handle it.....someone from our ward walked past. "Hi Sister Benedict!" Also another lesson to learn: if you choose to do these kinds of things only once in a life-time to try it out or have a rebellious moment or whatever the case may be, make sure that those who know you, but not well enough, are out of hearing range.
I love you to pieces, Mom! Thank you for inspiring a great McKenzie Time. Also, thanks for teaching me that you have truly mastered the art of yelling only when your children fall to pieces on the floor in a fit of laugher as a result.
