Mothers who helped and help me

Pa has read Farm Wife's blog to me. Thank you darlin, it was one of the many things that made my day wonderful.

There are women who have the gift of mothering and women who need help. I needed help and these are some of my teachers.

Shirley was one of my best friends in college. Shirley was the oldest of what ended up being a10 children family. Her mom was wonderfully wise. With out knowing it I learned a lot from her by just watching her and listing to Shirley talk about her mom. Shirley has 6 of her own and I'm sure she is as good a mom as her mom was and is.

Pa and I went back to college. We lived in married student housing, that's were I meet Brenda. She became another one of my best friends. She made mothering look so easy, because she was so easy going. If you watched close you would see her determination.
She got me through my first pregnancy, every time I would say I don't know how to take care of a baby, Brenda would say don't worry, it will come naturally. I found out that rocking, walking, feeding, changing diapers and loving that little person did come naturally.

Farm Wife has a strong mothering gene. She started mothering at a very early age.She mothered her babies and stuff animals. She mothered Pa and me.

She got that gene from my mom who got it from her Mother-in-law.

My mom said she was a great mother and she taught her how to be a mother. Not by setting her down and telling her what to do, but by just showing her and encouraging her. Mom tells the story of Grandma Y being sick and mom went down to help her out. Mom said that she couldn't have been much help since she had the twins and they were a year or so old. She just added to grandma's work but grandma was happy to have her there.

Grandma taught mom well because she is a good mother. You couldn't write a book about her mothering or make a movie about it. She is a great mother in the way that most mothers are great. She wants what is good for us.

Looking at her life and the things she has done you can see that.
She played with us, she laughed at us. She endured us and believe me that took a lot of work. She even let us watch Elvis's return in 68, when dad had grounded us from TV. THAT WAS A BIG DEAL
She watched my brothers go to war and watched the news hoping to see a picture of them.
She did her best to embrace her new daughter's and son's- in -law.
She was broken hearted when her first grandchild was stillborn and delighted with each following grandchild.
She like grandma gathered people in under her wing. She has shown us that blood isn't the only thing that makes a family . Because of that, sometimes, it is hard to explain who these extra kids are.
She has a lot of common sense, she will give you advise and if you want it, take it, if you don't, well don't take it.
She could fix just about anything and will try before giving up and paying someone to fix it.
She is... just a mom.

Farm Wife has been a mom twice now. The first time she was all of 13, 14 and mothered her brother and sister. I was sick in bed most of the time back then. This kid took on the job as best she could and I don't know what would have happened if she hadn't. There are times when I think back and my heart hurts because of what I missed and what she and the other 2 had to go through. She did it, they lived through it, have war stories about it and are strongly bonded because of it.

Now she has her own and she glows in her motherhood. She is mooney eyed about her husband and children. It is fun to read and listen to her talk about all of them and their antics. It makes me happy to watch her walk in her destiny.

Princess is my baby and I wasn't so sure she was going to have the good mom gene from her grandmothers.
She is a bit scattered brained like her mom. SHE GOT THE GENE. Watching her with HT is joy. She gets those same mooney eyes when she looks at her husband and little one.

AO got the gene too. Maybe not from me but someone passed it on to her. She is amazing because she is doing what she has to do, not what she wants to do. Three children, school, job and alone. Yet not alone she tells me quite often that God is getting her through this.

These mothers have been a help to me and because of them I'm happy to be a mom.