Silly Lessons from Mom

I have reflected on the many ways my mother influenced me throughout my life. She taught me many wonderful values, including honesty, integrity, the importance of being a good example, etc. One of the most wonderful attributes she possessed was a very funny sense of humor. She could be downright silly and I adored that about her. Here are a few of the Silly Lessons from Mom:

Lesson Number One: One of my mother's favorite things to say was, "Well, it's better than a kick in the rear."...which is true about most things. I find myself saying this to my kids a lot.

Lesson Number Two: If you open up a peanut you will see Brigham Young in his coffin. This was one of my earliest church history/botany lessons and found it quite fascinating as a child. I actually took a botany class at BYU and don't remember a thing, but I do remember what my mother taught me about the inside of a peanut!

Lesson Number Three: Laughing is a good thing. My Mom told me that when she was a teenager she and her girlfriend got jobs working at DI (Deseret Industries) helping tear rags to make rugs. My mother was fired after one day for giggling too much. How can anyone giggle too much? She loved funny movies also and one of her favorites was The Producers with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. It is still one of my all-time favorite comedies. I loved watching movies with my mom.

Lesson Number Four: To pass the time in sacrament meeting my Mom devised several means to keep us quietly entertained, including the ever popular game of adding "...under the bed" to the title of a hymn. My sister and I loved it! "Praise To the Man", "I Saw a Mighty Angel Fly"

Lesson Number Five: My mother instilled in me a great love of chocolate. She would buy M&M's and call them "happy pills." A little chocolate now and then does make me smile! She loved the chocolate cake at Twohey's and every once in a while we would go and share a piece.

Lesson Number Six: When I was little and bumped my knee or elbow, or my toe, she had a never-fail remedy: she would sit me on her lap and say, "Okay, let's rub the hurt out" and rub my elbow or knee or whatever was bumped and the hurt always magically disappeared.

Thank you, Mom, for passing along these Silly Lessons of Life.