Lessons from Mama's Kitchen

The lessons I learned from Mama's kitchen while I was growing up were many. The obvious ones were those of learning to cook many things the way Mama did. I still cook many things just like Mama. I not only learned how to cook but also how to enjoy food.
But even more important than those lessons were all the other things I learned while I was in Mama's kitchen. I learned to sing harmony as I blended my voice with the voices of my mama, sister, and father and occasionally with my two brothers. It was literally "daddy sang bass, mama sang tenor". My sister sang soprano and I sang alto. We sang without music most of the time. We just sang.
I learned the value of words sitting at the table while Mama cooked supper. I would do my homework and then I would get the dictionary and play "Try to Stump Mama". I very seldom did. That woman's vocabulary was AMAZING! I would thumb through the dictionary picking out words. I would read the definition and she would guess the word. Sometimes I would read the word and she had to give me the definition. Little did I know that while I was working so hard to "stump Mama" she was expanding my vocabulary and making me a better reader.
Another lesson I learned in the kitchen was actually from my daddy and not my mama. My daddy use to dance with me as we sang or as the radio played.  It was made up silly dances but it filled me with joy and a love for dance.
Our family always sat down together for dinner. We had a big "eat-in"kitchen. Everybody knew what time supper was and that we had better have our behinds in those chairs. We ate ,talked, laughed, and solved the worlds problems sitting at that table. When I had my own family I tried to do the same and managed to succeed most of the time .If I could wish one thing for families today, it would be for them to have the opportunity to create their own "lessons from mama's kitchen".