M is for

the many things you taught me, like

• the time your much-laundered Keds had a hole in the toe and you painted your pinky toe white so it would be less noticeable
• that a gal with a sweet Southern accent can always talk her way out of a ticket (my accent wasn’t sweet enough or Southern enough, unfortunately)
• to always be myself no matter how wacky my self is

O is for

• the outrageous things we did, like the time I was in 6th grade and we dyed my hair red and blue for Easter, and we used food color, and it didn’t wash out for a month
• and there are so many others that I am going to cover them next week in my Outrageous Mother & Daughter series

T is for

• the things you did to spoil me, like letting me eat whatever I wanted to and not forcing icky food on me, which has enabled me to Eat Like a Child well into my middle years, and
• the way I would leave my soiled clothes draped over The Magic Chair in my bedroom and they would disappear, only to be hanging laundered and ironed in my closet later, and
• the way you let me Be Myself even when it was A Problem, like the time I got in trouble for passing a note in class and my too-tightly-wound teacher went over the top about it, and you sent her a four-page letter explaining All About Kathi and letting her know she could be more gentle and get better results

E is for

• every time you responded to the middle of the night calls, whether they were from the next bedroom over, or much farther away

R is for

• the riches we shared, that had absolutely nothing to do with money

Put them all together, they spell, um, “MOTER”? Oh yeah,

H is for

• the Hell I raised more than a few times

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY EVERYONE!

And remember, you Mothers of Today have it sooooooooo easy.