My Mom Used To Say

This ought to be the real name of my blog.

I write about my mom mainly because she doesn't have any quams about me putting her story (as I see it) out there on the internet for you to read. I also write about her because she made a profound impact on my thinking and my living and I think the gospel according to Annabelle may be something others can benefit from.

So I now wonder...what will my children say about me on their blogs? Philip and I were discussing residency options, talking about the possiblity of living in the Northeast for three more years, when he said, "That's just not in the script of my life." He has an idea of where his story is going and he never thought it'd be here.

I see what he means, but I don't think about it in terms of a script. I think of it in terms of Sumner and Ramona's freshman dorm conversations.

Where will they be from? What will people think of them based on that fact? When Phil and I said we were at Columbia, saying you are from Louisiana or Oregon made us different. Not only was Phil wearing white jeans and I had on Berks with wool socks and a jingling anklet in a sea of students in J. Crew and basic black, we also really loved where we were from and identified with out battleground states. When people ask us where we're from we still say Louisiana and Oregon, even though we haven’t lived either of these places for a long time.

What will our kids say about us as they step out of their own for the first time? That's a real question. My mom's my good friend. My mom's a kook. My mom's an accomplished career woman. She sleeps in the nude and exposed all of our secrets on her blog, but she never made us make our beds.

The other day my friend, who reads this blog, told me that she doesn't order Scholastic books from school fundraisers for her daughter, because they can just get them from the library. I guess she's been pretty firm on this. As she was explaining this to her daughter, she thought: this is something Emily's mom would have done and Emily would remember it for the rest of her life.

My mom let me order Scholastic books, but I get what she means. 1. She knows my mom just from reading the blog. 2. How are the little things impacting out children?

What lessons that we taught them will they remember? What things are we repeating too much? What are we not saying enough?

I know that I say "because we're a family..." alot. Because we're a family...we compromise, help each other, pick up, be nice, and sometimes just shut up. I know I say, "I am so tired of no one helping me around her." I also know that I make clear my dislike of Toys R Us and Cartoon Network quite clearly. What about church? Will they hate church because I make them go or will they get something out of it? And their teeth? Will they brush everyday? Floss too? I just don't know.

I want to watch my words, but things just bubble over.

What is the script I have written for my kids? Where will they be from? What have they taken? Where will they take it?