What my mama did... FMF and a little more

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Life is busy and I haven't been visiting other blogs, which means I don't have as many visitors... so in case you missed them this week:

I wrote a post about how to Listen to God, as a part of my Abide 2013 series.
I wrote the second in The Slow Fade series, where I talk about the warning signs of infidelity.

From time to time I link up with Lisa Jo from Gypsy Mama for FMF {Five Minute Friday}
This week she's been posting stories from various bloggers along the theme "What my mama did".  It's been fun (heartwarming, inspiring) to read these stories.  Today she's giving us the opportunity to share as well. So... here is WHAT MY MAMA DID...



GO!



The kitchen was the center of our home.  Literally.  You could not get to the family room without walking through the kitchen.  It was a cluttered room with a lot of counter space and lots of places to perch (in case you got tired as you wandered through).

My mom cooked.  Not like a Betty Crocker, stay-at-home scratch-cookin' mama, but like a real woman cooks.   She rarely wore an apron, she tried new recipes and failed at them, and she made real food like open faced tuna sandwiches with processed cheese slices and spaghetti out of a jar.  She cooked almost every day.  Every night all four of us would sit around our table and eat together.

She was a feminist, and would get really hot under the collar if I or my sister were discriminated against because we were girls.  (This is interesting because we both went into male dominated careers... me in ministry and my sister in engineering).


She was a full-time school nurse for most of my life.  She is a high energy, get-it-done type of person.  She was very practical and pragmatic when it came to most of life.  She doesn't suffer "drama-llamas":  When I was 12, I was running in the house and whacked my hand on a door frame as I went by.  I dramatically fell down on the floor in the family room clutching my hand in agony, moaning that it was broken.  My mom sighed a long suffering sigh and told me to get up and calm down, "it couldn't be broken".  Two days later we went to the doctor because it was swollen and I was still crying about it. 



It was broken.  She had the decency to feel bad about it.


Despite all of that pragmatic stuff, and being a full time working mom, she had a silly sense of humor and could be found dancing through the kitchen, or joking with my friends, or chasing and tickling me or wrestling with my dad and when someone passed gas saying "oops, someone stepped on a frog". 

But the BEST thing that my mama did is she took the time to listen to us.  Each day as she came home, she would put the tea on, and sit down with me at the kitchen table and listen to how my day was.  She would help me process my friend drama, she would offer advice or just laugh about the crazy stuff my friends did.   I'm sure she was tired, worn out, ready to hide in her closet, but she was always there ready to listen, even when I wasn't ready to talk. 

FIN


This was written as a part of 5 minute Fridays over at Gypsy Mama
Interested in linking up? Go over there for more information and to link up, but these are the rules: 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..
Hope to see you on the Linky!!

Life is busy and I haven't been visiting other blogs, which means I don't have as many visitors... so in case you missed them this week:

I wrote a post about how to Listen to God, as a part of my Abide 2013 series.
I wrote the second in The Slow Fade series, where I talk about the warning signs of infidelity.

From time to time I link up with Lisa Jo from Gypsy Mama for FMF {Five Minute Friday}
This week she's been posting stories from various bloggers along the theme "What my mama did".  It's been fun (heartwarming, inspiring) to read these stories.  Today she's giving us the opportunity to share as well. So... here is WHAT MY MAMA DID...



GO!



The kitchen was the center of our home.  Literally.  You could not get to the family room without walking through the kitchen.  It was a cluttered room with a lot of counter space and lots of places to perch (in case you got tired as you wandered through).

My mom cooked.  Not like a Betty Crocker, stay-at-home scratch-cookin' mama, but like a real woman cooks.   She rarely wore an apron, she tried new recipes and failed at them, and she made real food like open faced tuna sandwiches with processed cheese slices and spaghetti out of a jar.  She cooked almost every day.  Every night all four of us would sit around our table and eat together.

She was a feminist, and would get really hot under the collar if I or my sister were discriminated against because we were girls.  (This is interesting because we both went into male dominated careers... me in ministry and my sister in engineering).


She was a full-time school nurse for most of my life.  She is a high energy, get-it-done type of person.  She was very practical and pragmatic when it came to most of life.  She doesn't suffer "drama-llamas":  When I was 12, I was running in the house and whacked my hand on a door frame as I went by.  I dramatically fell down on the floor in the family room clutching my hand in agony, moaning that it was broken.  My mom sighed a long suffering sigh and told me to get up and calm down, "it couldn't be broken".  Two days later we went to the doctor because it was swollen and I was still crying about it. 



It was broken.  She had the decency to feel bad about it.


Despite all of that pragmatic stuff, and being a full time working mom, she had a silly sense of humor and could be found dancing through the kitchen, or joking with my friends, or chasing and tickling me or wrestling with my dad and when someone passed gas saying "oops, someone stepped on a frog". 

But the BEST thing that my mama did is she took the time to listen to us.  Each day as she came home, she would put the tea on, and sit down with me at the kitchen table and listen to how my day was.  She would help me process my friend drama, she would offer advice or just laugh about the crazy stuff my friends did.   I'm sure she was tired, worn out, ready to hide in her closet, but she was always there ready to listen, even when I wasn't ready to talk. 

FIN


This was written as a part of 5 minute Fridays over at Gypsy Mama
Interested in linking up? Go over there for more information and to link up, but these are the rules: 1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..
Hope to see you on the Linky!!