What my Mama Taught Me

1. If anyone is coming over, clean the house. Actually, have the house clean at all times, because people will always come over when you least expect them.

2. Hairspray gets ink stains out of clothing. Hot water sets a stain, always rinse in cold. Dark clothes and light clothes must always be washed separately.
Angel has yet to understand why separating the laundry is important, and that's why all the white tank tops I wear to school are bluish gray.

3. Recipes are unnecessary.

I think I saw my Mom cook from a recipe once, maybe twice in my childhood. A general approximation of what kind of ingredients go well together is really all you need. Angel and I pretty much eat something a little different every day. Of course, if I really liked something, it usually can't be replicated exactly....

4. When having company, don't "charge admission" by asking them to bring something.

Potlucks are a commonly accepted form of family get-together, and that seems somewhat reasonable when the amount of people getting together for a holiday is astronomically large. But I don't host family get-togethers or traditional holiday dinners, I host parties. My favorite type being birthday parties, New Year's Eve parties, and summer parties. It's because of Mom that I'm convinced that having a potluck is a rather 'cheap' way to host a party. I won't stop people from bringing food along to a party, because hey, the more food, the merrier, but I won't ever invite someone, and along with the invitation, tell them their assigned dish. No entrance fee for my parties!

5. People are eternal, everything else isn't.

My Mom was excellent at teaching her children that stuff is far, far away from being the most important thing in life. We learned this from her own actions, when she happily left everything she owned when our family moved, and when she never got angry about a careless child breaking something in the house (my family is on our 4th complete set of dishes in the 22 years that my parents have been parents). People on the other hand--flawed as they are, and often as they disappoint you, are worth loving passionately.

5. The truth you learn from the Bible, the knowledge of your faith, is the most important thing you'll learn all day.
My Mom is a Bible teacher. To us kids with math homework and history textbooks looming over us, it sometimes seemed like Bible class took an excessively long time every morning. We would start getting fussy and impatient--and Mom would stop and say, "The rest of your schoolwork can wait. Nothing else you're going to learn today is going to be as important as what you're learning right now."

6. So, someone else thinks you're weird/ugly/stupid/unfashionable/odd/boring/annoying? There is no reason for you to care.
Mom taught us well that the opinions of others on our own person and of our behavior do not matter. The only time we need listen to others' complaints is when the matter is a moral one. If someone points out that you are being disobedient, unkind, lazy, or otherwise unrighteous--then you should take that opportunity to listen, examine yourself and notice what you have been doing wrong in the way you live. If their comment is that you wear weird clothes or that you don't have the latest and greatest in cell phone technology (non-moral issues)--who cares? This concept has strongly influenced my attitude toward life.

7. Few men are brave enough to fall in love without any encouragement.
I think my mom actually learned this from the movie Pride and Prejudice, but she's taken it to heart as relationship advice, and reminded me of it when I was old enough that boys weren't a far-off future concept but rather a Mexican nurse knocking on my grandparents' door. We're all for being ladylike and letting the men do the pursuing, but it's got to be disheartening to have every door slammed in your face if you're the poor guy. There's no 'playing hard to get' in our concept of relationships. If a guy is acting interested in you, and he's a nice enough guy that you don't want to discourage him, just be nice to him. Bake him some cookies. Don't tell him, "I don't have time to talk," and hang up when he calls you (yep, that's me). Reply to his emails, that kind of thing.