Greetings. The recent dearth of entries on the blog has been partially due to my own laziness, but also due to the fact that my mom has been in town since last Thursday. She came out to help us with house stuff, and I honestly didn't know what we would have to do, since most of the major unpacking has already taken place. But I had forgotten how great my mom is. In the last few days, Mom has helped me do so many little projects that I probably would have taken a year to get around to if she weren't here. We did some yard work, clearing up my flower beds and pruning my rose bushes. We took down a border in our bathroom that featured a variety of colorful fish, cute, but not really the look I was going for at the moment. We cleaned our garage, which is now incredibly organized, with hooks for mops and brooms and yard tools, and a place for Christmas ornaments and all of Dan's radio controlled car stuff. We went consignment furniture shopping to try to find a bargain armchair to help with the fact that currently if we have more than three people over, several of them have to sit on the floor. When we found the dream armchair, she bought it for us as a housewarming gift. And today, when I went to work and mom stayed at the house, she did all our laundry and various other completely demeaning jobs like washing out our trash cans and wiping off our windsills. Tomorrow, she has proclaimed that she is going to wash our windows before some people come to install the blinds that we ordered, and I am horrified that anyone is going to do such a hot, sweaty, dirty job without being paid for it. But I know there's nothing I can say that will stop her from doing it anyway. She's my mom, and she loves us. You can't reallly argue with that.
Recently, I realized that it's been five years since I graduated from college. About six months after that, I moved out of my parents house and even though it wasn't my plan to stay gone for so long, I never did come back. While I think everyone grows up a lot in college, I count it as five years since I've really been on my own as an adult. They've been great years, and I think my parents did a good job of preparing me to be a functioning adult. I can keep my house and pay bills and do it all without thinking much about it, because that's what adults do. But I've realized this week that every once in a while, even though you can do it yourself, it's so nice to have someone just take care of you. That's why everybody needs their mama, even when they're all grown up.