A Real Mom Meme

I saw this meme over at Shanilie's place today and I thought...HOW VERY COOL! I'm always up for a good meme. From what she wrote, the idea is to just write about your definition of a "Real Mom". So here's mine ~

• Real Moms lick their thumbs to wash your face...because they figure you already have all the same germs anyway.
• Real Moms say stupid stuff like "I said close your mouth and eat your dinner. Now ANSWER ME!"
• Real Moms love you no matter what you do, what you are wearing, what you say or how much mud you track onto their clean floor.
• Real Moms wipe snot and wipe bottoms even when it makes them Yak!
• Real Moms are not perfect; they burn dinner, slip up and say a naughty word. Real Moms lose their temper, color outside the lines and forget appointments. But they ALWAYS apologize.
• Real Moms love God. :D (Couldn't resist making a funny - sorry! If you haven't ever seen the bumper sticker "Real Men Love God" then you wouldn't get it. But that's ok...I love you anyway!)
• Real Moms put their families' NEEDS first. Notice I said "needs" not "wants". Mom's needs need to fit in there somewhere, too. After all, a family NEEDS to have a sane mother, ya' know.

One incident from my childhood has always been important to me because as a child, it showed me that my mother cared about us more than anything else in the world.

She was canning. Pressure cooker canning. I don't remember what was in it. But she was trying to keep an eye on it and do other housework at the same time. Well, she forgot about it. And the next thing we heard was a sizzling, thumping noise as the pressure cooker reached the point of no return. Then POW as the pressure release valve blew off and stuck into the kitchen ceiling. My mother moved faster than I have ever seen her move before or since...she ran into the kitchen turned off the heat while shielding her face with one arm; then in one fell swoop, she grabbed up both us girls and blew out the front door.

Then we sat outside and played in the front yard for awhile. Looking back, I'm sure she was expecting her home to explode in shards of flying metal pressure canner at any moment. But that didn't happen.

And she left all her worldly possessions in that house to save her two little girls.

As a result of that, I was terrified of pressure canning. Didn't even ATTEMPT it until I was 36. Someone gave me five grocery bags full of fresh green beans and I could not let them go to waste. Had to bite the bullet and can them. I SWEATED bullets for the first couple of canner-loads. Ready to grab up my little ones and head for the front door at the first sign of trouble.

I don't know if I'm a "Real Mom". Sometimes I feel like a very "Fake Mom". I guess only my children's therapist will know for sure.

I tag you...if you want to play.