A Mothers Influence.....

This weekend was a time to reflect on the importance of women, especially those who are mothers. We celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday, along with watching the LDS church semi-annual conference. The over-riding theme besides God and family was a mother's influence. The importance of the role of a woman in the home, and how she can build a strong family and community by fulfilling her role as a mother was greatly stressed. I know that today the worlds views of motherhood are in conflict with the past. A stay at home mom is considered old fashioned. I am grateful that my mom was there to teach me those things that made me a better mom and artist. She taught me to love God, nature, people, good music, art, literature and a lovely home. She got on the floor and colored with me, teaching me shading, contouring and how to create shape and depth. She taught me the basics of sketching people so that while she was good at landscapes, I surpassed her in drawing people. We would cook together, rarely using recipes for our sauces, but with heads together, we would season our concoctions with a pinch of this and a dash of that until we had the taste we desired. Cake baking always meant licking the beaters, and using the extra frosting to make graham cracker sandwiches. Baking pies meant making cookies dredged in cinnamon sugar from the leftover pie crust. One of my childhood friends recently relayed to me that she appreciated the time mom took to show us how to can peaches or make jams, and other heavenly delights; something her working mom never had time for. She said she was glad mom was there, and that she enjoyed how we would talk an laugh. Mom taught me to value honesty, modesty, and showing love to others. Her methods were sometimes subtle but she knew each one of us well, and how best to handle us. Take for instance the time I let a classmate talk me into taking a pair of sunglasses from the local drugstore. We would go down there each day during school lunch time for a hotdog and soda. My "friend" had a habit of shoplifting. Well about a week after I took the glasses mom had taken us to the city park for a picnic. As we sat there on the blanket she shared with me that the lady behind the counter at the drugstore said I was the most polite, nice, and sweet teenager she had ever met and she appreciated me. Well mom knew that I never wanted to do anything to make her or the family look bad or dissapoint my Heavenly Father so she appealed to my concience through this story. I suspect that she and the clerk talked about this and figured this was the best way to keep me from becoming a habitual thief like "Debbie". She was right....I felt so awful I never took anything again.

Mom has been gone for 34 years but her influence is still strong in my life. Now that I have more time to devote to my art I hope I can share my values and beliefs through my creativity. As I do this I hope that my mothers love can shine through as well. I hope that you can be uplifted, and find a bit of gladness as you stop by and see what is happening in my world. Feel free to comment and share....

Above are a couple of pictures of mom...the second picture is with my younger sister and I. I'm the curly top moppet standing.