I can do what I want!

I know it's not Mother's Day yet. But, we're oredering gifts or at least thinking of them right now. I was born on my Mother's 21st birthday! May 10th 1958. Here's a picture of 6 month old me and my fancy mother.

My mother was/is a strking woman. You can see her obvious style with the glasses in the picture. But also, she was 6 feet tall and quite an example of power in our growing up. She had 4 children in 5 years. Typical of the 50's and 60's. She had my brother Jim 14 months after me. Oh and yeah, he still adores me like that. Haha.

My sister and I had many issues being raised by this perfectionistic young mother. But, many years down the road, we know she did the best she could and her motives were always out of love and a desire that we have a "perfect" life and that was achieved by us being "perfect". No need to go in to the damage caused.
Today we live 4 houses from my parents and the center of our social circle is our nuclear family. I had a party several weeks ago with my High School classmates. My Mom and Dad were invited...along with my sister and her husband and children. Eclectic group of folks and me joking at one point, "Oh yah, my Mom comes to all of my parties", much laughter after that.

At this point in my life, after all we've been through the past 3 years, I had a desire for all the points of my life to converge...hence the seemingly mismatched party invite list. And it was a smashing success. God is Good. All of the time.