Saturday, May 09, 2009

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there in Leaguer-Land.

I'll be spending Mother's Day this year with Judy, Jamie's mom, and will raise a glass to my own mom when they come to visit in a few weeks.

I've known my own mom for quite a few years, and in that time, I've had opportunity to observe her at work.


it is impossible for me to imagine the KareBear sitting this still unless she were asleep

As lucky as I am to have the KareBear for a mother, its difficult to underestimate how many other kids my mom has taken care of over the years. A constant of the Steans household was to see all our pals running around the house, being fed, spending the night, and having a second home at our house. I was probably in high school before I figured out not all moms did this (Peabo's mom, however, probably saw a doubling in the food bill in the years I grew up in Austin as I wasn't shy about wandering into their kitchen).

And as my mom has taught however many decades worth of kids, it wasn't uncommon for us to have some kid who was having a rough time of it hanging around the house in one shape or another. From the girls whose family lost their house in a tornado to me wandering downstairs in college and seeing a pool full of kids I didn't know were going to be there that day, the lady's heart knows no limits to size nor does it know boundaries. She genuinely loved those kids, and when I'd wander the hallways of her school when I'd come to visit, those kids who hadn't been in her room for a few years were still trying to talk to her in the hallway.

All that, and there was never any question whether she had time to be a den mother for my cub scout troop, was hauling me and my pals to basketball practice, hosting parties for my drama gang, whatever... She was always there.

I don't want to paint too much of a Beaver Cleaver picture. Like any family, we had our differences. But I can honestly say that those differences were always something easy for me to deal with, especially as I grew older and knew that those differences stemmed out of approach, not out of any lack of love.

As nuts as I was about Jamie, I don't know if it was because of how nuts I was about Jamie or because she liked Jamie all on her own, but Karebear has been nothing but supportive of Jamie and me in a million different ways. And I know she's very pleased to finally have a daughter instead of just two, big, smelly boys.


probably what the KareBear envisioned for herself when she had a family


What she wound up with

Since I graduated, she's retired, but that doesn't mean she isn't volunteering at her former school, teaching English to new residents, and helping out with my grandfather and the kids of family friends.

This spring Karebear is fulfilling a lifelong goal of journeying to Kenya on a mission trip with a church group. While its traveling far from home, and into an unknown situation, part of me thinks its pretty typical of my mom. She's going to go above and beyond to help people she doesn't or who she barely knows.

So, I salute thee, Karebear. Happy Mother's Day. Hope that bouquet showed up.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Steans is/was the best. Anyone who not only permitted and tolerated pre-pubescant and teenage Peabo, but heartily welcomed him, has a special place in the Hall Of Great Moms. Happy Mothers days Mrs. Steans from one of your many adopted children.

Peabo

Michael Corley said...

As JAL can attest, my mother has similar attributes when it comes to feeding huge masses of "FRIENDS!"

Seems like every neighborhood has a home that's welcoming to just about anybody.

The League said...

And that is why we say "huzzah" for our mums today! Happy Mother's Day, moms.

J.S. said...

Can I ask a non-Mother's Day related question? How much are you making off of those ads on your blog, and where is the money going?

The League said...

I don't know if I'm making any money. Check out that "monetize" tab in Blogger. Supposedly they'll cut me a check at some point for whatever I've raised. I suspect it'll be less than a dollar. I posted the ads mostly out of curiosity to see what Google sees when it looks at LoM.