Mamma Mia

(Yeah, I like that show. A lot. So what? A little cheese is good for you every now and then.)

But today, my friends, it is all about the Mama.
Not thinking so much about the recent holiday, but I've been pondering the fact that my mama deserves some love on these pages. I'll admit that I often wax rhapsodic about the Mom-O, both because she and I share an obsession with all things crafty and because I feel very lucky to have found a boy whose mother I genuinely like. (I've heard far too many horror stories of awful mothers-in-law not to be grateful for this fact.)

But today, it's about my mom, who is as charming as she is predictable. When I called to wish her a lovely Mother's Day, I said to my darling, "She's getting fabulous for church."
Sure enough, though it wasn't even eight o'clock, she was getting her gorgeous on.
That's one of the reasons I admire her so. The woman never looks less than stunning when there is an occasion. She's simply too cool for school.

There are of course far too many reasons to be grateful to Miss Pearlie, as the kids call her, but I will only list a few.

• She taught me how to cook. I mean not just how to follow recipes, but to really cook. How to taste a recipe or a menu item as you read it, how to put flavors together; how to be adventurous ('cause I'd never have eaten rattlesnake or beef tongue tacos on my own, I tell you) and how to fix a dish that goes wrong. All of these skills have come in handy as I've pursued my career (and my sweetie - it was only when Mom made our wedding dinner that he really understood what I mean when I tell him that I can cook, but my mom is a culinary genius).
  
• She is a girly-girl. If I heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times: "leaving the house without earrings is like being naked in public." My Mom is a lady. She can make leopard print look classy. That takes skill.
  
• Mom is also a flirt. I don't know that anyone can understand the power of her womanliness without meeting her, but damn -- she's cute and she knows how to use it. Men leap over themselves (and sometimes over other women) to talk to her. She's got "it" -- whatever it is.
  
• Mom is generous -- sometimes too much so, I think. She'll give you her time, her money and even let you wear her fabulous new suit in the school play (um, not that I would ever have done that. I'm just sayin').
• Even if she doesn't always agree with me, she encourages me to pursue the things I want wholeheartedly. If my mom had a motto, I think it would be rather along the lines of Churchill: "Never, never settle -- except for your very best."
  

And getting back to a more typical subject for this blog, Mom's the one who helped me learn to knit -- even though she doesn't knit herself. Pretty sweet.

Thanks, Ma. Je t'aime.