Mother's Day

I've been thinking a lot lately about nature vs. nurture and from where Hannah and Lizzie get their unique personalities and skills.


And when I think about nature and nurture I think about from where I got MY unique personalities and skills.


Some of them came from this woman:




This is my mother at age 4 or 5 in her dance recital garb. I know that I DID in fact get my high arches (and included inability to wear most shoes) from her, but somehow, the grace and coordination of dance -- well, not so much. She kept those for herself.


And there are many things of me that I see in my daughters: Lizzie's hypochondria is all me; Hannah's shall we say lack of coordination, again, all me. I have no idea how these things are programmed outside of DNA, but it's very clear to me that these girls are mine and that in some karmic way they were sent to teach me things and I'm here to teach them things.


Like, for instance, how to cook.

If there is a piece of toast to be burned, Hannah will burn it. In fact she has yet to make toast where the smoke alarm hasn't gone off. If there is a pot of water to be watched on the stove, Lizzie will let it boil over.


Now it's all out there in black and white for everyone to see, too. For Mother's Day the girls' class made a cookbook of their own recipes. Here's Lizzie's:


Cupcakes

2 quarts of flour

1 cup of sugar

3 cups of baking soda

4 sticks of butter


Mix the ingredients together. Pour it into a cupcake pan. Put it in the oven for 20 minutes at 20 degrees.



And Hannah's:


Brownies

3 quarts of sugar

2 cups of flour

4 cups of frosting

6 cups of baking powder


Mix up all of the ingredients. Put it in a pan. Put it in the over for 4 minutes at 10 degrees.

Clearly there is much work to be done. And hopefully I have inherited my mother's legendary patience with which to guide them. But at the very least I am so very blessed and grateful that as much as I am in my daughters' lives to guide them in things well beyond cooking, my own mother is still in mine to do the same thing.

Happy Mother's Day to both the naturals and the nurturers!