In honor of Mom's birthday today, I am starting a list of 73 things I love about her. Since I know that many of the readers of my blog also love her, you can all add to the list until we get 73 things. Just be sure to number them in your comments.
Here are the first 10:
- For setting the example that marriage is "for better or for worse," but mostly making it better for Dad (and him for her)
- How she would cook banana pudding for special occasions even though she doesn't like it
- For telling us to "look it up in the dictionary" rather than just telling us how to spell a word, so we would really learn how to spell it
- For making sure we always had dinner together as a family, even if sometimes it was just biscuits and jelly
- For loving ALL of my children equally and unconditionally
- That she's so much stronger than any of us gave her credit for
- For sharing her faith and making sure her kids grew up knowing Jesus
- For teaching me that it's "all of a sudden," not "allah the sudden" when I was like 12
- For having to be the disciplinarian even though she knew we would resent her for it
- For all the memories of growing up as a Jinks
20 comments:
11. for keeping that drawer full of toys in your dining room for your visiting grandkids!
12. For giving birth to the best kids ever.
13. For the fun time we had when we visited you in New Mexico.
14. for ALWAYS smiling.
15. for playing Army men with me when I was little
16. For all the amazing breakfasts, lunches, and dinners - home-cooked like nobody else's! YUM!
17. For all the games of Yahtzee and Scrabble after school.
18. For supporting all the ways we all worked to develop our talents and interests.
19. For sharing your musical legacy with us.
20. For teaching me how to make tuna casserole.
21. For making Home so homey, even when we came back after moving away.
22. For loving us unconditionally (there have times some of us have made that pretty difficult!)
23. For making sure our kids have great memories of their grandparents!
24. For Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and all the other holidays that gave us the magical holiday memories kids should have!
25. For teaching us how to laugh, cry, pray, work, play, and love.
26. For making it so easy to sit and make a list of wonderful things about you! I should stop hogging this space!
27. For giving me and Ryan the tape recorder to make tapes for our mom and dad when we were visiting and homesick. I have so many memories of that week.
28. For the little gifts you used to make your grandchildren by hand when you had so many and I'm sure they took so much time. They were loved.
29. For letting me and Ryan pick out whatever cereal we wanted when we came to visit you. We thought that was so cool. :)
30. For your strength in the face of very difficult circumstances.
31. For having the coolest swing set in the world when I was younger.
32. For giving me the best dad ever!
33.For teaching me good lessons.
34. For always being so loving and giving.
31. For cooking some of the best food I've ever had.
35.For having that cute little green tractor Clayton could take me around in!
36. For always smelling so nice...and for your house smelling nice also.
37. For writing about the 50s for me in that notebook I had as a little girl.
38. For all the neat presents you gave me when I came to visit. They were all so unique- my favorite was the carousel. I still have it. And a minature set of silverwear you gave me because I wanted to be a waitress when i got older...and the beautiful tea set you and papa gave me for christmas when I was two. =]
39. For letting me use the special guest soap that was shaped like a pretty butterfly.
40. For listening to my stories and telling me great ones.
41. For setting an example of what a great mother and grandmother is.
42. For coming to my graduation.
43. For being beautiful inside and out, even after having six kids.
44. For finding the good in ANY situation, looking towards the future and bringing a new meaning to the cliche "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."
45. For being "my sunshine, my only sunshine." =]
I LOVE YOU!
46. For the great beautiful smile you always have!
47. For your laughing eyes!
48. For having Patrick!
49. For the hours and hours of undivided attention I watched you give to Clayton when he was a toddler!
50. For your unconditional love!
51. For the hours you spent playing scrabble with me!
52. For your never-ending patience!
53. For your storytelling!
54. For all your advice!
55. For your friendship!
56. For the memories!
57. For taking lots of pictures! I'm so happy that you and Papa took so many pictures while your family was young and beyond those years. I took it for granted until I realized that not everyone has that.
58. For giving me my wonderful wife
59. For being such a great grandmother to all my kids
60. For always saying, "I love you" at the end of our conversation
61. For your strong faith in God
62.For playing in the snow with me when we came out to see you.
63.For loving me
63.For always being there for me
64.For e-mailing me
65.For being the best grandmama in the world
66.For giving me advise
67.FOR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE FOR ME! I love you with all my heart!
Oh, wait! I have more!
68.For listening to me
69.For talking to me on the phone
70.Making me feel better by e-mail
71.for caring for your family
72.For loving Krista and me as if we were your blood grandchildren!
And . . .
73. For picking up the pieces of your life after Dad died, and showing us true strength and beauty.
We love you!
so i'm on japanese time and didn't get know about this blog until right NOW.
so here goes
73.1: for letting ash and me stay at your house for a month when we were lil' ones (it was a month right?)
73.2: for letting us use that tape recorder in the kitchen for hours, creating probably some of the most hilarious tapes to send to our parents.
73.3: for not spanking me when i came to visit, even though i'm sure i was a brat! wasn't there a paddle hanging up in the kitchen?
73.4: for having a home that genuinely felt like my own. it was never awkward coming to visit. i always felt right at home.
73.5: for always smiling!
73.6: for giving me my mom :)
i love you grandma :)
Well, I was mistaken by how this thing was to work so...
no numbers neccessary...
For letting me string beads... over and over and over... and letting me keep some!
For letting us pick fruit on your property.
For teaching us about washing the fruit we'd pick before eating it.
For sugar cane.
For time in a photo, a hug, a smile, a smell, a sound.
For your unfailing and unconditional love.
For my family.
For your faith, strength patience and wisdom.
For being you and never faultering! I love you!
So when do we get to see what Grandma thought about all of this?
Since Mom didn't have everyone's e-mail, I'm posting what she wrote in an e-mail after reading this post. Thank you to everyone who contributed. It's not too late to add your comments! I know some of you didn't know about it in time. Here's her comment:
Dear Family,
Thank you all for your love. The things you wrote about why you love me was the best present I have ever received. What a nice thing to print and to look at when I get depressed. You will never know how I will cherish those words you wrote.
Debra, where did you get the idea to do that? You sure do come up with the best ideas. You are certainly a real JINKS.
I love every one of you with all of my heart. God has blessed me more than I ever deserved. I am so very thankful to have all of you in my life. You are all just what I always wanted. I only wish we were close enough to visit often. Everyone says that the world is getting smaller but I think it is too big.
Leah, you are a very special grandchild. Of course I love you and I would not want you to be the grandchild of any other family. You and Krista are both loved as are all the other people in my life. Stay sweet and try to please Jesus. He will give you a wonderful life.
Well, I am crying so hard from happiness that I can`t write any more. To those who said thank you to me, you are most welcome. I have no regrets about my family. You are all wonderful. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
LOVE Always,
Mom Grandma
aunt debby, what a great idea.
grandma, i have some memories to add...
* every time i play yahtzee, i remember your dining table... it's where i learned. the toy drawer was the first place we'd go when we came over. it always brought everybody together in a fun way. you're so smart!
* when i stayed with you that summer, each week you'd take chris and me to walmart for a new toy and our own box of cereal. we felt so special.
* the best movie times ever were in your den, watching old yeller and the likes. now we have family movie night regularly in our house.
* thanks for letting me "wind" the cuckoo clocks. they are one of my fondest memories, and i will always keep one hanging in my home.
* my mom used to say "a job worth doing is worth doing well." then she'd say, "my mom taught me that." i can't tell you how many times my mom shared wisdom with me, and followed it up by giving you the credit. your legacy has definitely reached beyond your own home, and it will continue with your children's children's children.
"her children arise and call her blessed..." proverbs 31:28
love you,
adam
Oh my gosh. I cried for half an hour before I could put in my two cents. Love is such a huge thing! Made up of an infinite number of small things. Things that, once they’re put out there, they go on forever. Mom, who you are has been much more than 73 years in the making, and will go on, as Adam said, far beyond whatever years you are here. So some of the reasons I would have listed have already been “taken,” but I have a few new ones to add. I love you
For listening to Hansel & Gretel, Mary Poppins, and Black Beauty over and over and over and over and over and over.
For biting me on the bottom when I bit Carla for not letting me play with her glue and scissors and stuff.
For saying, “I’m sorry,” when you spanked me for accidentally tearing my brand new, not handed-down play clothes – while playing in them.
For buying those brand new, not handed-down play clothes just for me.
For making us girls wash dishes, sweep and mop, vacuum, dust, cook, and do our own laundry. I’m truly, actually thankful for that – even though it took a while for me to realize it.
You really do smell good.
You really do have a beautiful smile.
You picked a good dad for us. And you were really good to him.
For fighting so hard to get up after every hard knock. To quote Ernest Borgnine in the only good version of Poseidon Adventure, “you got a lotta guts, lady.”
I cannot remember a time when you have not been there for me. Not one.
For showing Laura things I didn’t know how to show her. You still do. I still don’t.
For giving me the best brothers and sisters in the whole world.
For not quitting having babies after Deb. :)
For not quitting having babies after me. :)
Okay, I don't want to be a space hog, either.
I love you, Mom! I'm glad you were born!
i totally cried too, Aunt kathi, and I am once again reminded of what a wonderful thing it is to be a part of this family. we are truly blessed. I already felt that way, but seeing how other families are now that I am older, and part of another one, it's not that the other families aren't good... but they just ain't got what we've got. :)
for teaching my mother to be a woman of God. Every time i think about how wonderful my mom was, i know that it came from somewhere. you were her example. she was mine. i hope to be able to leave a legacy with my children that honors hers, and yours. i feel so blessed to have had her as my mother and i know she felt blesssed to have had you as hers.
for all the times we came to visit at your house in louisianna. we would be get so excited to sit in our non-air conditioned car and travel for days just to come see you and papa. we loved it. :)
Post a Comment