Which means Newberg has been extra home for me this week, because my mama flew out to love me for the past five days. It was the best.
Those of you who know my mother will be able to guess some of the ways it was the best. Those of you who don't can get a picture through the following (completely unexaggerated) vignettes.
*******
"Sweetie, let's go shopping!! I want to buy you absolutely anything you want."
"Aw, Mom, that's so sweet. But you don't have to."
"No really, sweetie, I WANT to. ANYthing you want. Your heart's desire!"
"Aww... okay... well actually, I have really been wanting-"
"I am not buying any books."
"Okay."
(sigh) "CLOTHING, Emily. Any piece of CLOTHING your heart desires."
"Got it."
*******
"Ooh, Em, this would look great on-"
"No."
"You haven't even tried it on-"
"No."
"Honey."
"Mom. I am not wearing a skirt that short."
"Sweetie, I just don't want you to waste your youth. Do you think you'll have legs like that forever?"
"I am not wearing a skirt that short."
"Okayyy... how about this one?"
(It's almost knee-length.)
Me (suspiciously): "That one looks nice..."
Mom (brightly): "And look, you could easily roll the waist band up two or three times!"
"No."
"Just try it and see how it looks?"
"No."
*******
"You go to a Quaker church??!! Oh, I'm so excited!"
"You are?"
"Yes! That will be so much easier to explain to people than just Christian! You know I support you no matter what, sweetie, but the whole evangelical thing really did require a LOT of self-control for me."
"Understood."
*******
"So I need to rest A LOT while I'm visiting you."
"Of course!"
"I mean really. A LOT. I need to conserve ALL my strength for going to visit Allie." (where she was heading after she saw me)
"You do? Why?" (Allie is generally considered the less-energy-required child, for reasons I completely cannot comprehend.)
"Oh, I am just PRAYING Obama wins. If he doesn't your sister is going to be INCONSOLABLE. I'm going to have to spend all my energy convincing her not to move to Canada. Can we pray that Obama wins? I'm just too tired to deal with it if the country elects a Republican the week I visit. I didn't really think through the timing of this well."
*******
"Em, while you're at work today I want to do a little bit of organization for you in your apartment! Just a little. I want to! I'll just straighten up."
A few hours later...
"So it was so strange. This man at Goodwill asked me if I was COLLECTING wicker baskets! Huh!"
I now have a window seat constructed from boxes organized seasonally,
and my clothes have been folded and sorted according to sleeve length and type of washing required.
Once I find them again I suspect this will be really helpful.
*******
I could not possibly love her more.
So grateful God gave us to each other.
4 comments:
love this post - and now Allie and your mom can have a great week!
Emily I had a fabulous time with you in Oregon and meeting your wonderful friends and experiencing your wonderful hospitality. I am a little worried though that this blog post makes me sound kinda jerky with regard to Allie and Obama. I believe i said "inconsolable" if he lost which, not to quibble over semantics, means something different then unbearable. Thank goodness he won for many reasons.
thank goodness that you and Al both accept that my kind of mothering means "organizing" such that you may never find anything again, but the feng shui will flow with good energy nonetheless. I love you more than the moon and the stars.
Mama- ha! Edited. love you so so so much.
SO SO FUNNY. Love this.
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