Also...

In addition, Mother's are the best! I would be nowhere without the mother's in my life (even if they do share drink choices with John Wayne). So, thank you Biggie. Thank you grandmother. Thank you mothers in my life who have passed away. All of you have had a huge influence on who I am today. Grandmother Hataway taught me to cook without fear and that perfectly good people prefer to sleep in. My father's grandmother who I never met taught me, through proxy, that there is never a wrong time for biscuits. Grandmother Ceil taught me that hard work never hurt anyone and being subtle will get you nowhere. Her stepmother, Bessie, taught me about dumplings and helped to give me an appreciation for Thanksgiving. My  mother's side of the family taught me reverence for Thanksgiving. Bessie's kitchen table is now my kitchen table and we eat off of her everyday dishes for special occasions at The Home®. 

My mother... my mother is me and I am my mother. We have very similar strengths and very similar weaknesses and she has taught me how to deal with both. She is a picture of grace and neurosis. The woman can smell things that happened weeks ago. Her garden... it is freakish and beautiful and everything is twice the size it is in other gardens. She strives for perfection and expects you to do the same. She is the matriarch and the queen. I would do anything she asked and I made her a promise early on that when I grew up I would still come over for Sunday lunch. I am not there every time but I get there at least once a month. I am a momma's boy and that is okay with me.

Finally my wife. She deals with me and the boys. We are a mess and she keeps us put together. She is not my mother so I will wait and let her children blog about her someday but, she should know that she is a great mom.

To celebrate my mothers this past weekend we ate. The boys cooked the supermodel pancakes and made her coffee. That afternoon we went to 2Pop's house. We ate ribs. We ate potato salad. We ate baked beans. And we ate pound cake.

In summary, my female role models have all been amazing  and you should be jealous.