Mom, can I.......?

I love these phone calls.  Mom, can I substitute chicken broth for vegetable broth?  Mom, I'm making pancakes and I don't have any buttermilk.  What can I use instead?  Mom, how do you make meatloaf?

These are the best phone calls in the world to me.  My kids are grown.  They are married and have their own kids.  I thought it was going to be hard when they finally fled the nest.  Some days it is.  I was worried I would feel like my kids didn't need me anymore.  What would I do? 

I married into a ready made family.  Insta-mom.  My world was flipped upside down and inside out almost overnight.  All of a sudden, I had these two little people who I was responsible for (along with their father).  Their lives were changed just as much as mine.   I would love to say it was easy.  It wasn't.  I had this picture of what life with children was supposed to be.  Ribbons, bows, baking and sewing.  Yeah, no.  It was more like duct tape and Elmer's glue.  Oh, I baked, and sewed, and tried to make the fairy tale in my mind a reality.  Looking back, I think I tried too hard. 

Now, when my kids say that they are just trying to be like me when they were young, I want to shake them by their shoulders and tell them to stop.  I had it all wrong.  Don't be like me.  Learn from my mistakes.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  Really, it doesn't.  Have fun.  Explore with your kids.  Look at the world through their eyes.  Play in the rain.  Make snow angels.  Have a snowball fight.  Spend the afternoon coloring.  Make memories.  Because eventually, you are going to be older, and your kids will be grown, and they'll be calling you to ask if you can substitute chicken broth for vegetable, and what to used in place of buttermilk.

Oh, and if you are wondering, the answers are yes and milk with either vinegar or lemon juice (oh and add a few tablespoons of sugar to the dry ingredients.  Trust me on this one).