Mother's Day Tribute

Today I would like to honor a special someone who has been most influential in my life. My mother is the most amazing woman I know. I hope when I grow up, I can be like her. She has so many talents and is so selfless and compassionate. I remember as a child having her frequently ask me to take a loaf of bread to someone, or run an errand for someone, or come with her to visit someone in need. It seemed every Sunday evening was spent with my parents walking to neighbors nearby to check on them and assess their needs. They remembered these people in their prayers, and talked about ways to help them as a family. They are so kind and thoughtful in this way.

My mother is such a great example of being trustworthy. She was and is so good to keep herself out of gossip circles, (which is tricky to do in a small town =). I admire the way she always has something good to say about someone, no matter who they are, or what choices they've made. She can be trusted with any secret and knows the importance of keeping things confidential.

My mother is so hard-working. She taught me how to plant a garden, hoe a row of weeds, gently water seedlings, and bottle up foods from the garden. She was patient with my brother and I when she found that we were plucking the flowers off of the bean vines to make our job of picking beans easier.

(Lathan, Me, Lorene, & Maury with his
nose patch after his car accident.)

My mother is very creative. She always had a way of making Christmas and birthdays so special, even though money was tight. She often made things by hand and most of the time I didn't notice the difference. I remember her making a Pound Puppy, an Annie doll, and all of my doll's clothing, blankets, hats, etc. She always made a special shaped birthday cake for every birthday. I remember having a rabbit, butterfly, & snowman among others.

(Mayona, Lorene, Maury, Lathan, Me, & Dad all
lined up on the stairs youngest to oldest
ready to go upstairs Christmas morning.)

(Me on my 3rd Birthday with a snowman cake.)

She has the most beautiful smile and a very infectious laugh. Right along with this I have to mention her sneezes. They are definitely something to write about and always make me laugh. She has the loudest sneeze I've ever heard and does this funny little stomp thing with her foot as she sneezes. Very endearing. =)

She is very nurturing and gentle. I don't recall her raising her voice or ever yelling (except in a nice way like out the window to get my dad to come in from the barn for dinner. . .after she rang the dinner bell for him =). Whenever I would be feeling overwhelmed or stressed, she always had a calming presence about her, and was very good at helping me methodically figure out how to get everything done.

She taught me how to cook and live off what the farm and land provided us with. She taught me how to sew clothes and dresses, mend holes, hem pants, and sew on a button. She truly lived by the motto, "Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

(One of my many sewing lessons.)

She taught me to cut hair. My brothers and poor unsuspecting neighborhood boys were my practicing tools. (My husband, sons, and checkbook thank them all now.) She encouraged me to learn how to give perms (even doing my own one time), and set up a "situation" for me to learn how to french braid my hair by asking a lady at a track meet to sit in front of me and french braid her hair so I could watch and learn. Oh mom *sigh* =) It did work though, I did learn and because of that I can now french braid my daughters hair as well as my own.

She taught me how to organize things in the home and helped me to feel that sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when something was clean and organized. She taught me how to properly make a bed, hospital corners and all, and fold down the tops of the sheets to keep chin grease off the blanket. =) ~Chin grease is my brother's word, not hers.~

She taught me to be frugal and that many things in life can be lived without. She was an example of thrift, even doing her errands and grocery shopping by using her bicycle. She can amazingly balance a lot of bags on the handle bars of her bicycle! One time we went to take bread to a lady down the street. The lady asked her son if he knew Mrs. Flake, he said, "sure, she's the lady with the bicycle that goes squeek, squeek, squeek." =)

She taught me how beautiful being a mother could be and how precious babies, children, and family's are. She showed me through her example that being a mother was one of the best things you could do in this life. I knew family time was so important to her even when she would be so exhausted, she would try and sit down to play card games with the family and usually fall asleep with her head in her cards.

(Mom and her 5 daughters youngest to oldest
L-R: Me, Lorene, Mayona, Tamra, Noni, Mom.)

She gave me my love for music. When I was a young girl, she would sit at the piano for what seemed like hours and play song after song after song, while I would sing to my hearts content. She would be my audience for every "performance" I would make up. I would insist she sit on the couch and watch and listen to me. She always had some sort of fun music playing in the background for me. She taught me that anything can be fun when put to music, including housework. (My favorite tunes to put on when doing housework is still Power Tunes. Little did I know that one little music tape was teaching me things like, attitude, trying again, enthusiasm, determination, patriotism, industry, integrity, family, dreaming, courage, cheerfulness, caring, creativity, sportsmanship, and overcoming.)

(One of my many "shows" I put on for the family.
This one happened to be patriotic.)

She introduced me to the arts early on, and our family would attend wonderful symphonies, famous pianists, dancers, actors, and musicians that would come to our small community.

(This was a concert I went to when Wladimir Jan Kochanski
was on tour. He invited the kids up to the stage.
That's me in the bottom left hand corner of the picture.)

She supported my crazy ambition to play both the flute and the violin, which meant attending both band and orchestra. She encouraged me to be in plays, musicals, and to share my talents with others. She was always so selfless in shuttling me to sporting events, music lessons, rehearsals, etc. She believed in my abilities before I could believe in myself.










She taught me to look for those who needed a friend, to always share a smile, to be cheerful, to willingly serve, and to leave a place better than it was before we were there.

She showed me what patriotism was and taught me the importance of our country, our founding fathers, and our freedom.

She's always given me room to explore and figure out who I am and always believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. She loved me through all my decisions, good and bad, and gave me the tools to figure them out (sometimes the hard way), without taking away my free agency.

She planted seeds of faith in my heart and helped me cultivate a testimony that would sustain me through hard roads ahead.


She set an excellent example of journal writing and was and still is a very faithful journal writer.

She taught me to love and respect the elderly, and to learn from their wisdom and experience. She taught me to serve them and to brighten their day by often taking our family to the old folks home to sing for them.

She taught me the importance of scripture study. Even when I was a stubborn teenager and I wouldn't 'make time' for family scripture study, she would bring the scriptures to me and patiently sit on the edge of my bed every morning and read scriptures to me while I got ready for school.

She taught me where to turn for peace, when after having a silly squabble with her, I would find her kneeling next to her bed praying. . . . .I assumed for me. She taught me to turn to my Heavenly Father for anything big or small.

She showed me that I was the most important thing in her day. When I was in High School and was able to come home for lunch, she would always have my lunch ready for me, as she knew I wouldn't have much time. She would stop everything else she was doing and spend that time pestering me with questions about my day. I probably seemed annoyed at the time, but now I look back on it with a smile.

When I was in grade school she would come on my field trips with me and my special treat would always be a little 10 cent Sugar Daddy. She would often bring me a fresh set of clothes after I would find every possible mud puddle on the playground. She would cheerfully bring in baby goats for me to share with my classmates (that could not have been easy to haul in a car).

(Mom & I on a school field trip.)

Her love and dedication to her family is very apparent in her actions. She's been there for almost every grandbaby (42 in all), which isn't an easy thing to do when they all live out of state, even some were as far away as Florida and Toronto, Canada.

(My parents with Shaylin as a baby.)

My parents have been empty nesters now for 14 years (since I left home), and have done so much with their time. They have served missions in 3 places (Cambodia, Russia, and Africa). They've given their time to help with the measles campaign in Africa (twice). They serve in the Snowflake, Arizona temple, and they try to visit all 7 of their childrens' families regularly.
My mother has left huge footprints for me to follow. If I could only do half of these things for my children, I would feel like a successful mom. I love her more and more each day and appreciate the love and sacrifices she made for me.

Thank you Mom!!!

Happy Mother's Day!