Flashback Friday....Caption: Mom and Me.

I've been thinking about this post for a long time.
Mother's Day seems the appropriate time to work it out of my head and onto the page.

A couple years ago I broke into Sister Susie's house.

Ok, I didn't break in, but I was there and she was not.

Jerry didn't know I was coming (that's an inside joke).

And this time even Susie didn't know I was coming.

I intentionally planned to be there when they were gone.

The purpose was to go thru their family pictures to pick out ones to scan for Susie's surprise party and birthday video. 

I had put off the task of facing the massive mountain of family photos that are in that closet. I had been through them before when I did a show for Jerry. I knew it would take most of the afternoon to get thru them and days and days to scan them. I stood before the room, took a deep breath and dove in.

Going through the pictures did take me most of the afternoon. Photo albums, boxes, loose pictures, flipping through photo by photo. When I started, I thought I would walk away with hundreds of pictures of Susie with her family. We're talking 40 years of pictures here! But to my surprise at the end of the search I had way less than I expected...a mere fraction of a fraction of the total amount of snapshots that live in that closet. What I realized that day, is when it comes to most family pictures, Mom is M.I.A.
Mom is missing in action because most likely she is the one recording the action. This isn't always true, especially in the 40's, 50's, 60's...more dad's were in charge of the Kodak Brownie and/or the 8 mm. But in the era of point and shoot and now iphones, mom is usually behind the camera and/or the one getting the cake ready and lighting the candles.

Several months ago, I read this article:

You should read it.

Right now.

just click here and read it.

I'll wait.

So, I read this article and I immediately thought of this picture:

mom and me

I don't know if I've ever posted this picture.

To anyone else...it may look like my mom and I have had a rough day.
It looks like we are worn out.
It looks like we've both lost our best friends.

But to me, it is one of my very most favorite pictures.

It is my favorite because it is SO not posed, so common, so daily, so looking like it is us at the end of her very long day, sitting down to rest, to watch Carol Burnett and eat some chips. She probably wanted nothing more than to escape a little (maybe even from her clingy kid) and I wanted nothing more than to sit as close as I could to her (and eat those chips). I probably was about to ask her to clean my ear with a Q-tip (cause that's the only time we were allowed to use them) or to lay across her lap and have her scratch my back.
I LOVE this picture, cause it shows us on a normal day, doing nothing spectacular, not going anywhere, not even posing, just us being together.
I love it because it shows that I was once little enough to fit in that space in between her and the arm of the couch.
I love it because it shows that I was once THAT close to her.
That she...we...us...were real.
That those moments happened.

And believe me, now that there have been SO MANY moments that she has been gone....
this thought, and this picture, proof that those moments happened, is precious to me.

And after I read this article, I thought about Susie's picture collection.
They are few, but there ARE pictures...pictures like this:

And after I read this article, I thought about how many times...YOU, older MOMS and younger MOMS have set up the picture...
how many times you have scurried out of the pictures...
how many times you have put the kids in front of you or have sat them down and walked over by me and picked up your camera. 
How many times you've said, "ugh...my hair, my clothes...not me, get them."

Well, guess what?
Get in the picture!!!

I'm coming for you...and I'm taking your picture...

Get IN the picture(s) moms!!

Because the pictures we take today....
those pictures are their Future Memories!

And someday, a kid, your kid, maybe even an adult, who, no matter how grown up they seem, is still your kid;

That kid, will sit at a computer and pull up that picture of you and him sitting on the couch.

And he will look at you, his mom. 

And he will study that picture, every single detail, of that picture.

And they will remember you.

And she will remember your love.

And he will marvel that he was ever actually sitting that close to you. 

So, Mothers!
Give your kids their Future Memories!

Get in the picture, Moms!

Directions to here:
And Seriously, if you haven't read the article yet...go do it. It's worth your time. It says what I'm trying to say a thousand times better, because it's written by a Mom.