things i can thank my mom for

since today is mother's day, i thought i would to take some time to list some of the things i can thank my mom for. this list is far from inclusive.

1. my hands-this may seem superficial, but i look down at my hands and the older i get the more i see my mom's hands. i don't have a lot of my mom's physical features, so this matters to me. my mom has slender fingers with enlarged knuckles from years of working with her hands stitching, crocheting, knitting, playing the piano, etc, and now furiously typing on the computer. i can hardly remember a time that my mother didn't have something in her hands. while my hands haven't been worked as hard, i am starting to see the signs of wear.
2. my respect for education- my mother is a teacher and places a high level of importance on education. i inherited that from her as well. i was even a teacher for a while. my last drunk, i extolled my best friend's son to "stay in school" which has become quite the joke amongst us.
3. my crafty nature-my mom knew how to do it all when i was a kid; knitting, cross stitching, tatting, quilting, sewing, crocheting just to name a few. while i am not lucky enough to have learned all her skills, i certainly love the ones that i did manage to learn from her. and am certainly interested in learning more.
4. my love of sweets-some of my favorite food memories as a child are of my mom's sweet treats: popcorn balls, apple goodie, brownies, blackberry cobbler, rosettes, snickerdoodles, and more. is it any surprise that i love baking so much as an adult? i don't cook much anymore since my boyfriend is an ex chef and prefers to cook our meals. baking, though, is my real joy in the kitchen as you may have noticed from my food posts.
5. my love of thrifting-while i didn't really shop at thrift stores much in my younger days, my mom definitely gave me lots of experience in thrift stores.
6. couponing-my mom was an expert coupon clipper. i learned so many tricks from her.