“How do I express to her how much I appreciate her and enjoy her company?” My mind was thinking in a flutter so what came out was, “Goodbye Amy the Magnificent! See you tomorrow.” This term came readily to mind because of my children. Let me back up ten years before my children were born when I volunteered to be a nursery helper for a women’s group. I watched around twenty kids of various ages, none of whom I knew.
The children wanted loving but I felt no relationship to any and saw only a group, not individuals, until one Alex and her Mom. The Mom popped in three or four times in the two hour period just to be with her daughter and was interested in what she was doing. I saw Alex as a person first then began knowing the rest of the children. Ten years later I left my children in a similar nursery; I also dropped in, but to give them a slight head start I wrote on my daughter’s name tag, “Anna the Wonderful” and on my son’s, “Paul the Magnificent.”  nancymauerman.com

When my young face was smooth I thought mostly of myself but also I desperately wanted to draw pictures full of such mystery to grab the eye and never let go. I longed to tell stories in such a way as to make others laugh from their insides out and to break up thinking into new synaptic patterns and designs.
When my young face was smooth I wanted to cause others to see their old world as new and ask new questions. Now I’m wrinkling, a little more thoughtful of others, and well on my way to making those mystery pictures and telling synaptical stories.

In a few days I’m going to be 63!
I look in the mirror and can’t find me!
The nice thin, smoooth layer of fat that hid all the worries, faith, frowns and laughter in my face has slipped to my waist!
BUT actually
I look like, and am, more me than I use be.nancymauerman.com

Sitting on the floor I could see something sad; the woman telling me Bible stories and the smiling lady teaching songs about Jesus, I didn’t believe the words they said.
I longed to believe in a Heavenly Father as much as I longed for long flowing hair but desperately wanting long hair doesn’t make it a reality. I’d read the Bible through several times before I was twelve, asked a lot of questions and wanted God in my life but didn’t believe. The story of the mustard seed was like a slap in the face because I couldn’t find even a speck of faith in me.
But I did believe my mother loved me and this kept me from giving up. Then one summer this was almost taken away as I faced a dilemma. All logical evidence pointed to the fact that my Mother was trying to kill me. Did I follow logic or the faith that my Mother loved me? I call this an Eve Dilemma. Eve had no scriptures, or text book about how faith brings rewards. She had no mother or grandma to tell her the way. She choose well or we wouldn’t be. I choose to believe my mother loved me when all I could see was that she was trying to get rid of me.
As a young adult I read that if we don’t have the faith, even the size of a mustard seed, but if we have the DESIRE to know, we could find God. I can’t tell you how exciting this was.
God was always there and I finally found what I’d always longed for, because I’d already experienced faith in my mom. Looking at old photos I see myself as a little girl whose mother pulled her hair back into a Long pony tail, first thing every morning. I already had long hair it just was off my shoulders so I didn’t see it
I wrote a book called ‘If Mrs Greeby Asks’ about my Eve Dilemma hoping children will ask questions of parents and they will talk them out and answer them together. The book ‘If Mrs Greeby Asks,’ makes adults and children laugh out loud too. It gives parents and grandparents the opportunity to look into their children’s eyes and tell their little ones how much they love them and are loved by their Father in Heaven.  nancymauerman.com

There were still about thirty of us desperately wanting only four available places! The art teacher dismissed all those that weren’t graduate students or in their senior year. I wasn’t either but I saied. He told the thirty of us to leave if we had not yet taken the prerequisite classes. I hadn’t but I stayed! Then he interviewed each of us asking why we thought we should be chosen.
When my turn came he asked me if I’d had I taken the required life drawing classes and I said, “No.” which made the others angry. But I explained I’d been drawing from the model since I was thirteen and probably did as good a job at it as him or better. He didn’t say anything but the group got angrier. I told him I’d heard he was a good teacher so wanted the course and he asked why I couldn’t wait a few years then take the course from him.
“I have two years left in my four year degree with no room in my later schedule to take your class.” I told him. “At the end of the four years I’ll adopt children. If I wait much longer I’ll be too old to do that.” This made the other students very angry and very noisy because it was a WASTE OF AN EDUCATION IF I WAS ONLY PLANNING TO BE A MOTHER!
The teacher looked me in the eyes and expected me to answer their question. I told him what my church had taught me: “If you educate a worker you have educated one generation. if you educate a mother you’ve educated four generations!” I was accepted into the class and the things I learned from him changed my life and I recall his words.nancymauerman.com

When my children were small we celebrated this holiday by talking with our mouths overly full of food, with our elbows on the table, chewing noisily with opened mouths, leaning our chairs back on their two back legs, and belching as loud as we could to say we liked the meal. We held our plates up to our lips and shoveling in the food.
We laugh a lot and talked about customs in different countries and etiquette we should use in fine restaurants. The countries we talked about were noted in various places on a time line hanging covering a great deal of our living room wall. As we heard classic music, throat singing, koto music, read great books, learned about inventions, and events in history we cut out pictures of these things and glued them to the time line.
As well as Bad Manner Day we celebrated German Week, Japanese Week, and others where we attempted to make foods from these countries. We talked about their customs, clothes, books, stories, art, and history and on Saturdays we’d visit an associated restaurant, using good manners. Learning was fun.  nancymauerman.com

I still have my wedding gifts and a few of my favorite childhood books, all hold sweet memories but I don’t at all have any of my childhood diapers. As I suggest kids books as baby gifts I often receive the answer, “Oh, I give something useful, like diapers.” why not something that lasts?  nancymauerman.com

I knew this even as a kid. That was a good thing because I had a bad summer when I was seven, read about it in, ‘If Mrs Greeby Asks‘ to laugh out loud. This book is free as an E book for a few days at Amazon.  nancymauerman.com