Dear mom, How did you know?

Happy birthday to my mother today!  I'm not even sure how old she is today, but when she was born, on St. Patrick's day, her mother gave her an Irish name: Marjorie Shannon.  Years later, she married a man with an Irish last name of Kerns. So there you go.  I get my green eyes from her, and we both choose green as our favorite color!

I wish I could email or even talk to her today, but she and my dad just went through cyclone Pam in the South Pacific and will have no way of communicating for who knows how long.  (They did find a place with satellite internet and were able to reassure us that they are okay.) I have been thinking about her all day.

Particularly as I sat happily sewing as Pace took his afternoon nap.  I was thinking, "who would have ever dreamed that I would ever have come to enjoy sewing?!?!?  Not me!!"

Growing up, if we mentioned that we wanted a new dress for church, or an up-coming stake dance, mom would say, "let's go pick out a pattern and some fabric and make one!" I don't think I ever owned a store-bought dress.  I don't think my sisters did, either.

Picking out the style and fabric of the dress was the fun part - exciting as we envisioned a unique creation; exciting to be alone with mom.  I remember finding certain fabrics and mom saying, "I can just SEE this with that pattern!"

Starting to actually sew and the whole sewing project was my dread.  I had a bad attitude about it, and would often act like I couldn't do something, like thread a bobbin, just so that mom would do it for me.  I would read the pattern, but always ask mom what the next step was. I was trying to make it very clear that I did. not. want. to sew! I know I was just hoping that she would see me as a lost cause and make it herself. My own kids are so much better at just figuring things out and doing them.  My mom didn't deserve me. Sometimes I would make mistakes and be so frustrated that mom would pick them out for me.

But through it all, I learned to sew.  I am so lucky to know this skill!  It has saved me so much money through the years, and has become such a fun hobby.  Things that I can envision, but are nowhere to be found, I can make! How did mom know that she was bestowing such a gift?

As I sewed and thought about all of these things and how much I appreciate my mom for passing on a useful skill, I thought, "I need to do better about having my own girls sew things!"  Immediately the thought followed, "It's so much easier for me to do it myself!!"

And then a greater well of appreciation for my mom swelled up inside of me.  It wasn't easy for her to have us sew our own things.  Thank you, mom, for your patience, unselfishness, and vision!