Happy Birthday Mimster!

Today is my mother’s birthday.

Happy Birthday Mimi!!!

You are the best mom a girl could ever ask for.

My mom has the gift of hospitality like no ones business! We have all had a very busy Spring as I have chronicled here and here and here and possibly here as well. For all of those occasions my mom has cooked and cleaned and cooked more. She has served above and beyond the call of duty!

I learned my cooking skills from my mom, although I STILL can’t make an apple or rhubarb pie as well as she does darn it. I mean, we are using the same recipe for the love of Peter, Paul and Mary. How hard can this be? Well, and there is that little dispute we have over what kind of mayo is the only kind to use (Hellman’s of course). Yeah and there is the small disagreement as to whether you should put cut up bananas into fruit salad (NOT). AND I will never understand her love of liver and onions (a tool of the devil) or her thinking that peanut butter and banana sandwiches are anything other than vile. And…….

Ummmm, sorry there. I am back on track now.

Mimi (and Papa too) have opened their home for hordes of people for all the years that I have been on this mortal coil. When I was little they were house parents to a big house full of missionary kids attending a local Christian school. I had trouble parenting my own progeny let alone a house full of other high schoolers whose parents were in various countries far and wide. And it didn’t stop there. Aunt Sue lived with us for three years. Sue is Papa’s youngest sister….but she is only 6 years older than I am so she was in college when I was in high school and she lived with us.

Then there were other college students and missionaries and friends and family members who have resided in various bedrooms for various lengths of time. And my mom fed them all and carpooled people places and took them shopping.

Oh, and about the shopping thing…..

My mother is very good at that. She has a great fondness for dollar stores. It is genetic unfortunately. Dollar General calls to me with it’s sweet siren song of cheap but useful items. I cannot resist, especially the Dollar General in Cedar Lake, IN. It calls to me….calls to me…..

My mom can make anything grow. I mean, Pilot Man gave her this plant, I have no idea what it is. It kept getting taller and taller so she took a knife and sliced the top half of it off and stuck it in another pot with some soil….and then darn thing grew. And it is HUGE. So now she has two huge plants. And that isn’t all as far as plants are concerned. I don’t think I have ever known her to kill a house plant. They just look at her and know that she is full of plant love and they grow for her. They grow up the walls, they grow onto the floor, they grow through the screens on the window. They grow.

If you have a plant that needs help then just send it to her.

Mom, you are the best mom that a daughter could ever have. You have been a faithful wife for 51 years, you have been a wonderful hostess to thousands, you have taken all the grandchildren for days and days on end, you have bapped with the best of them, you have loved the Lord with all your heart.

I thank the Lord every day for you!!!

I love you!!!

P.S. Could you pick me some more rhubarb, I am almost out.