What the Daughter Got for Mother's Day

Not what the daughter got for the mother for Mother's Day... what the daughter got on Mother's Day:  her favorite peanuts, a random assortment of tea, and...Neosporin (for no reason)!  

Mommy didn't send me all that many care packages when I was in college, although my brother did.  But as I've gotten older, she's begun to send me more and more of them.  Mostly they contain some combination of cards, dried fruit, various types of nougat, chocolates, and snacks.  And Ann Taylor gift cards--for no reason, except that I'm her daughter, and now that I am officially unspoilable, she wants to spoil me.  Occasionally she sends oddball (but super-delightful!) stuff like...tortilla chips, Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuit mix, and...the new winner, Neosporin.  Where does one go about finding a mother like this?

Mr. Squire and I are looking forward to starting a family soon.  We've been talking about it for a while, so I'm getting used to the idea of being a mom...kind of.  I'm not really all that fond of children (although particularly bright children amuse me, especially if they are also obedient and do not drool or get their grubby hands all over everything).  And to be honest, children don't appear to be all that fond of me.  (Mr. Squire, on the other hand, is a child magnet!)  

But I do look forward to being a mom, because I hear that people tend to love their own children regardless of their lack of affinity to other people's children.  And I have a great example to follow in my own mom. She didn't do everything perfectly, and there are a few gigantic mistakes she made along the way.  I expect the same will certainly be true for me.  But I look forward to mimicking the things she did really well, like instilling in us (my brother and me) the reality of God and her true affections for Him; continually teaching us about Jesus and pointing to Him as our sole source of blessing; praying for us daily, from birth to the present; explaining our wrongs in detail before punishing us, so we learned how to accurately tie behaviors to consequences; taking time to tutor us academically at home to build our confidence for performing well in school; being honest about her own failures and trials, instead of hiding them from us, so we could learn from them and not repeat her mistakes; bringing us to soup kitchens at a young age so we would learn the importance of serving the poor; showing great compassion as we encountered difficulties and hurts; and...baking lots of goodies, and in doing so, proving that any great recipe can be mastered. 

Happy pre-Mother's Day to Mommy.  I am so thankful for her.  God is good.