Fluidity of time

I remember writing about this last year when I visited Mom and Dad. Time here is different. In England we wake up in the morning, go to bed at night, then wake up again the following morning. Not so in the Black household. One night last week J woke up at 3am and heard chopping noises. He got up to find Mom in the kitchen chopping onions. She couldn't sleep so she decided to get up and make onion quiches. If you wake up in the night, 9 times out of 10 someone else will be up too.

Mom is unique though. I'm not a big Benny Hill fan but I always hear his theme song if I watch Mom when she's busy. She moves like she's in fast forward. The woman is like the Energiser bunny. One afternoon this week I decided to lay down with Rosie during her afternoon nap. Mom was reading in her chair and said that she might lay down in her room too. After a while it became obvious that Rosie wasn't going to sleep but I was still very tired. I got up and saw that Mom's chair was empty so I went looking for J. I explained that Mom was resting and I wanted to nap so could he look after Rosie. J pointed out that Mom wasn't resting and I looked into the back field to see that she had built a bonfire and was throwing old branches onto it. I hope I have that kind of energy in 25 years. I wish I had that kind of energy now!

It seems like Mom and I have always knocked heads but really that all started in my teens. Having children of my own now I've started to remember what Mom was like when I was growing up. She was always good at things like making tents, playing cat's cradle, twirling batons, baking cookies and telling ghost stories. We would have special theme dinner nights and even 'romantic' dinners with candlelight and fancy food. When I think about it, a lot of the things that I like most about my own parenting style are straight from Mom. I think she would be very surprised to hear it but I do have a new respect for her these days. I just wish it hadn't taken me twenty years to get to this point.