Nobody can do it like Mom can

For the past month or so my mom has come over once a week to help me clean my house. It's been such a blessing to have her live close enough that she can do this for me. Without her the bottom half of the house would never be clean. What used to take one second to bend over and pick up now takes a minute of strategy, dexterity, and mobility. So, my mom is now my picker-icker-upper.

Two weeks ago, Mom cleaned my basement bathroom. When my brother-in-law moved out, I had him clean the bathroom since that's the one he used all the time. Sure, it was clean but...something was off. So, my mom cleaned it and she did such an amazing job. Nobody can clean a bathroom like my mom can. Just give her some Comet and she can work miracles. The bathroom instantly had my seal of approval when I smelled the Comet. I was back in childhood when my mom would clean the bathrooms and I knew everything was clean, sanitized, and okay to use again. I almost didn't want to go to the bathroom in fear of tainting such hallowed cleaning, but I didn't want to pee my pants either. I cleaned my main floor bathroom today and used Comet...but it just wasn't the same. There was no special Comet smell, my tub still has a few dirty streaks, and it hasn't been Mommified.

I started thinking of all the things only Mom can do and here's what I came up with:

-hot chocolate: Mom stirs it in such a way that there's never any powder floating on top. Her hot chocolate is never burnt, never too watery or too chocolaty. Mine always comes out with burnt powder islands floating on top.

-scrambled eggs: I think everyone thinks that no one can mimic their own mother's scrambled eggs. I've come up with good enough eggs for me and Steven, but not like my mom's.

-chocolate chip cookies: Mom's cookies always come out big, thick, moist, and full of yummy goodness. I've studied her cookie baking skills to no avail. Mine still come out small, flat, and dry.

-perfect cursive: sure, it's an endangered species of writing but it's managed to thrive through my mom's various notes, shopping lists, and daily thoughts she writes on the family white board. Even her non-cursive penmanship looks like cursive. So neat and tidy. I found faking notes hard to do in school but I did manage to get pretty good at her name.

-sewing patched on jeans: when she would sew patches on our jeans, she made them look brand new. My sewing just looks like barf. Poor Steven has to wear barf-patched jeans to work.

I'm so happy to have my mom as my mom. She's going to come stay with us for a week when the baby is born. Maybe she'll clean my bathroom and bake me some cookies. And I can't wait until Tuesday when she comes again to vacuum! I wonder what sort of things my children will like about me....

Me and my mom at Christmas doing our Snuggie dance.