Thanks Mom

I was taken on a trip down memory lane yesterday. King J mentioned to me that he would like some new button down shirts. That his polo's that he wears to work every day are great. But he was getting tired of them. So Princess M and I took a trip to Goodwill and found several. I washed them and found I had just purchased a new chore for myself as they all require ironing.

I decided to pull out the ironing board and get it all done before he got home to surprise him with my purchases. I found a few of my own things that needed to be done that always just sit in my closet because neither he nor I like to iron.

Well I ended up ironing 6 shirts and it took me almost an hour. During that hour I was taken back to the house on Grandview hill that I grew up in and into the downstairs laundry room. I was standing in front of the window doing my dads shirts. I hated that job. There were always so many shirts to do. I didn't understand why it was my job to do dads shirts. Who cared if his shirt was a little bit wrinkly, they weren't even wrinkly, just that out of the dryer look. Who cared. It wasn't until I was standing there yesterday doing shirts for my husband that I understood in more ways than one why it was important for that to be my job so many years ago.

First, I had this kind of June Cleaver feeling come over me. That it was one of the ways that I could "take care" of my husband. He is in a position of authority at work and he needs to not only look his best, but feel his best. And a simple thing like having a pressed shirt would help with that.

Over the years I have been amazed at all of the skills that I poses that I just take for granted. I just assume every other person knows how to do them, or do them correctly. Kinda like common knowledge. Take cleaning a bathroom for example. I remember a time when I was in college and we were having a white glove inspection. It was one of my room mates turn to clean the bathroom. She just wiped everything down with a rag and water. That was how she cleaned everything. Just with water. Yes it looked clean, but it didn't get rid of the germs. And for a white glove cleaning, or deep clean you need a little more than that. I never again resented having to deep clean the bathrooms on Saturdays, one or more times to get it right, as a youth.

Grocery shopping is another one. Again in college, it was my last semester there. So 2 years in, and I had a new room mate who had been there for just as long. But had been in the dorms prior to living with us. We went to the grocery store for our weekly stock up shop and she didn't know what to do. She was 20 years old and had never really gone to the grocery store to do a real, fill your cart, grocery shop. Again I saw the importance of my Sr year in High School when it was my responsibility to plan the menu for the family and then do the shopping for that menu.

So Mom, thank you. Thank you for helping teach me how to do the simple things. The things that I hated and gave you grief for as a teenager. Things that I have learned other people didn't learn from their moms and have made their lives as adults harder. Thank you for helping me to feel like I am doing a good job as a wife, mom and the CEO of our home.