Mother

Happy day to all you Moms and future Moms. This post is to broadcast to all the world the greatness of my own Mother.

My mom is the 3rd of 8 children, I guess she liked it because she had 8 herself. She married my dad at 19 and had her first baby, a boy, 9 months later. And another, and another. Then came the girl, Annie. I came 3 years after that... the 5th.

My mom said it took 5 tries to have a perfect kid... poor mom... all those practice rounds!

I don't know anyone who works harder, is more thoughtful, patient, and saintlike. I also don't know anyone who can laugh as hard, beat my pants off at scrabble EVERY TIME, have curlier hair (except maybe tu-pac, but he's dead), or easily feed 24 people in one sitting (yup, that's right, 24!). My mom is smart enough to know when you're lying, but wise enough to wait until you fess up on your own. She listens even when she wants to laugh, or cry. She can put a fussy baby to sleep in 2 minutes tops, get a stubborn toddler to eat or "go potty", and she's changed roughly 60,000 diapers in her life... and still counting. She's even known for grabbing the ears of her grown sons to get their attention when they are sassy. This woman bravely would take 6+ children camping in rain or snow... sickness or no. She's had to drive the junkiest cars known to man in order to budget enough to feed her 8 loves. She's denied herself countless pleasures, untold dreams, and many nights of sleep. For what? For 8 little hoodies who still call her "mim". Her face engraved on a special place in 8 little hearts. All for different reasons... for me, it's:

-teaching me how to calm sick children

-how to relate to anyone

-dealing with crisis by just focusing on what you need to do.

-how to deal with a difficult husband :)

-how to budget and plan meals

-encouraging me to go for my academic goals.

-listening to me whine, giving me sympathy, and then telling me to get over it.

She's what makes it possible for me to look at motherhood and say "I know you, you don't scare me! I can do what it takes to master you, because I know someone who did it already!"

Thanks mom I love you

"Everything that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to my darling mother."

-Abraham Lincoln