the miss momma way

I had a different post planned for today. Another California recap (p.s.-thanks for reading putting up with all my virtual diary posts about my trip, people), but when I woke up this morning I knew it was a day for a different kind of post.

2 years ago today my grandmother passed away. Coming from a family that is closer than close, it completely rocked everyone's world. Rocked. Part of me feels like these last two years have been a story of how a family tries to build back their life with one person missing. It's hard and sometimes it feels like we'll always be that puzzle with the dang missing piece (seriously, where do the puzzle pieces go?!), but most of the time now it just feels like...life. Life kept going. The sun kept going up and down. Life moved on. We've moved on, in a sense. We've moved on in the way that she lives through us every day. We are doing things she taught us. Or doing things that remind us of her. We are the legacy. 

Freddie and I recently met a new-to-Charleston married couple. The girl and I have bonded over family and our strong desires to be stay-at-home moms (side note: this is not a pregnancy announcement. I repeat, not a pregnant announcement). She made a great point about how the mom job is so different (and important!) than a job job because kids are our legacy. Family is our legacy. Family (this includes friends, too, obviously) is what we've got. But I'll stop there since I wrote about all of this kind of stuff in the OMG-I'm-so-emotional-we-are-back-from-our-trip post. 

So when I reach for a slip every single time I wear a dress or a skirt (EVEN when it's already lined) that's because Miss Momma always said wearing a slip was the nicer thing to do. I can't not wear a slip. I want to be nicer. I can use a double negative, though. 

Or when I make up dumb songs for everything or harmonize with a song on the radio that's because Miss Momma raised us to love and appreciate all things music. She raised my mother, who had to play the piano and then my mother raised us, who also had to play the piano (as long as you live under my roof! That was the rule). 

I love living life the Miss Momma way and I can't wait to teach my future kids how to be nicer, too. 

Family is errythang, if you ask me (and my opinion is very important...). Give them all big hugsies today and every day. 

I wrote about my grandmother and her life here.