Mums

Not the flower, the family member.

My Mom came and stayed with me for an entire week while I was recovering from major surgery. Not only did she take off work to do this, but it also came up (very suddenly) at the end of an exhausting camping trip! I'm sure she would much rather have gone home and relaxed and gotten things back to normal, but instead she came and stayed with me. I didn't realize how much her visit meant until she left. After dropping her off at Union Station I cried all the way to my car, I cried all the way home, I cried in my apartment for a half hour, and then on and off throughout the rest of the day. Don't worry! I've stopped crying. But it's still sad.

I figured I would enjoy her company, but I didn't expect what happened: I actually learned a lot!

Things like: it's wasteful to leave lights on all over the apartment, even if I'm not paying for the electricity (we have it set at a standard price every month).

Things like: it's ok to add an extra towel to the counter if there are more dishes to dry than the strainer can hold. Wash them, don't just leave them in the sink until the ones in the strainer are dry.

Things like: even though my cat is an obnoxious brat, yelling at him and throwing him across the room when he bites me are not nice responses. instead I should be super extra nice to him (and surprisingly he does calm down faster this way!)

Things like: how to cook vegetables and make them edible.

And the biggest thing: how to keep my apartment clean!

The comment that I always get from any friend that has ever been to my parents' house is "WOW this place is IMMACULATE!" And it's true. Mom, more than anyone I have ever met, takes amazingly good care of her home. Everything is ALWAYS in its place. You'll never find a pile of junk, you'll never swipe your finger over a piece of furniture and find a speck of dust, there are never cobwebs or dust bunnies or anything - you'd think there was a maid hired 24 hours a day. It's truly amazing. Split screen to my apartment: Laundry everywhere. Dishes piled high in the sink. Junk mail and bills scattered across the dining room table, some of which have fallen on the floor. Nail polish and nail tools on the coffee table from a manicure I did 3 weeks ago. Makeup and hair products covering my (large) bathroom sink.....I mean...what sink? Get the picture? One word to describe me: LAZY. So when Mom came to visit, of course the first thing she did (which took her a solid 2 and 1/2 days) was clean my apartment, top to bottom. Did all my laundry, cleaned my kitchen, put things away, got down on her hands and knees and scrubbed my bathroom floor......she probably doesn't even know but I cried out of gratitude =) And I watched her, trying to learn her secrets. Well there's really no secret. If you want a clean place, you have to clean!!! Mom never sits down! If there is something to be done, she's doing it. Even things like taking the garbage out.....when I need to do so, I put it by the front door until I'm going downstairs again and then I'll take it to the dumpster. But not Mom. Nope, if there was garbage to be taken out, she was out the door and down 3 flights of stairs to the dumpster right that second. I was baffled.


All that to say, I've picked up most of her cleaning habits. I don't let things sit around anymore (except for garbage. I still wait until I'm going downstairs). Even on the days these last couple weeks when I was feeling like absolute crap and was passing out all the time, I would wash a few dishes, pass out on the kitchen floor, wash a few more dishes, pass out on the kitchen floor, etc. until my kitchen was clean. It hasn't been fun, but my apartment looks better than it's ever looked...and for longer than I've ever kept it clean! So I owe my Mom a big 'thank you' for showing me how it's done.


(Not to mention, all of this while making my food, going out for groceries, buying me little things just to let me know I was loved.)


I also got into a 4 hour discussion about spiritual things with Mom while she was here. It was nice and refreshing, and while a lot of it was over my head, I still learned some. Mostly I learned that I need to study more =)


I could go on and on, but lunch break is over. All of this to say, I enjoyed having my Mommy here more than I realized. Not just because she did all my work for me, though that was appreciated haha, but she is good company.


It's nice when Moms are friends.


<3