What I had to say.

Mom gave us honesty, support, unconditional Love and homemade food. She never lied to us about how life went and never believed in any of this touchy feely self esteem crap. She tried to make sure we had the information we needed to grow up. There were never any taboo subjects in our house. She tried very hard to fallow very basic rules when raising us
1. Never pick a fight you can't win ( however she did it anyways)

2. Have consistent rules that end in walls so that we hit something and know it when we messed up.

3. Be brutally honest to her-self and us – she gave us reasons that we understood and could grow from.

She also had a lecture for everything, so many lectures (her favorite form of punishment) she would say that they have them numbered in our heads and we know what mom and dad would think of anything we would ever try to do. When she was to tired for a long whined lecture she simply went with sayings here some of our favorites and I assure you they will be put to good use with my miss Emily : And what does that have to do with the price of tea in china. If we could explain it to her in a logical way how our being able to drive a combine at 4am would change the price, there was a very good chance she would let us.
We could always tell when we when getting on her nerves as it came with the warning of “Come closer so I can smack you”
I personally heard many times “Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.
We always knew the fight was over and we had lost when she told us to "Go ahead and call child protective services - But make sure you pack because I won't be the one moving. And our all time favorite is BECAUSE I SAID SO.
It is said that the mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What a caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Mom loved every one and worked very hard to not judge people. She brought home many people over the years that were in need of a family. We lovingly call these people our strays and I can’t imagine my life any other way. People often felt she always did things the hard way. Between having kids at a young age, quitting her job, home schooling us and moving to a farm with nothing it may have looked like the hard way. However I have had more time and fun with my mom in my short 26 years than most people will get to ever have with their parents. She was truly a child at heart and if only I could find the bravery to act as freely as she did. I remember her making up songs on the way home from the book store about farmer john and what had his bad pig done now. She would eat flowers and sing in the grocery store. She would say anything to watch the shock of the people around her. To torment my brother when asking for new things she would tell him “I have panties older then you I don’t see why you need anything”. Josh always told her it was really time for new ones”. My mother lived in such a way most would call her eccentric, and free spirited, but we just called her MOM.
My mother was a big believer in God and knew that when we die we go onto a better place. Maybe not with harps and angels but certainly another plain of existence. One where we understand so much more then we can as we inhabit these weak human forms that are so easily damaged. She always thought of hell as a state of being, when you wake up on the other side and know the truth of the pettiness and angers you carried through life, because you lived in fear, of death, of life, of loss, of failure, of love.
To be true to her beliefs, she didn’t think people should cry at funerals she felt they should have a joyous feasts for the person who escaped this world, completed their trials and gets to move on to the next adventure.
After much contemplation and a long discussion with my brother we feel there is only one way to sum up how we feel about it all.

Our mom is better than your mom and it’s just not fair.