Dewey Day

So my mom gets gypped. Her birthday falls on or within a few days of Mother's Day every year. I can't speak for my siblings, but I tend to lump them together and call it good. I know, the shame. It's like having your birthday on Christmas. Which our nephew and Grandma do. Unlucky birthdays around here.

I digress. I decided this year something must be done. And so it was born, Dewey Day! Dewey Day, you ask? My dad lovingly refers to my mom, Julie, as 'Dewey' because my 2-yr old self couldn't pronounce Julie. I know, adorable, right? It's basically her own Mother's Day but my dad can take her out to eat because it's not Sunday :)

To inaugurate Dewey Day, I'm posting some pictures of my beautiful mom and telling you why she rocks.

My mom is Home Makeover Extraordinaire. We buy her power tools for Christmas. Right now she's remodeling her bathroom (we're talkin' knocking out walls), recarpeting the house, and repainting the upstairs...and parts of the downstairs, I believe. I don't know, I lose track of the projects. But she loves it. She loves to stay busy. She and Justin had so much fun this summer redoing our house. I felt bad they spent every waking minute of her trip out here working. She insisted she loved it though. I also love that she and Justin get along so well. Neither of them know what to do with nor enjoy spare time, I think. Her projects are meticulous because she doesn't want people to know she did it herself. But then she tells everyone she did it herself :)

I love that she is thrifty. Didn't love it so much growing up, but what an invaluable lesson she taught all those girls. Now that most kids are out of the house, money isn't going to lessons, car insurance, school clothes, etc, her thing right now is 'I can have whatever I want.' And yet she still can not, for the life of her, buy clothes at full price. I think all of us girls have a serious aversion to full-price items as well. I called her this morning to wish her Happy Dewey Day and see what they had planned for the day. My younger sisters came home for the weekend and my dad's taking everyone out to whatever restaurant she chooses. Problem is, Mom wanted to take everyone out for chinese but my dad is insisting she pick somewhere nicer. She just said 'What? I like Chinese.'
I'm thankful my parents valued the right stuff. Some moms spend crazy energy making sure their kids are dressed in name brands and are in with the right friends. My parents didn't care about that stuff. They value our education, our talents, our testimonies, our achievements. She always encouraged us to move away. I guess that sounds mean, but she wanted us to be adventurous and grow up. I think she's eating those words now that all her grandkids live so far away...

She threw the most creative birthday parties and would let us have Back to School parties, Halloween parties; any reason to throw a party. I had carnivals, crazy scavenger hunts all over the city, murder mystery dinners, at some point we had a painting trough (new, of course) full of ice cream sundae fixings. All of us had our hands tied behind our backs and just dug in with our faces. Awesome, huh.

Then, of course, all the things you don't appreciate until you are a mother yourself. Thinking about all the violin, piano and tennis lessons, basketball games, swimming meets, choir and orchestra performances, school projects. Oh, it makes me want to cry. People always would compliment my mom on our violin performances and ask her how she did it. I would be thinking 'Uh, helloooo. I'm the one up there!' Now I get it. Kudos to you, mom, for anything we turned out to be.

I hope your first Dewey Day is memorable and you feel how much we all love and appreciate you. Wish I could be there with you.