Sweet memories of my mom

I hope I can do as good of a job being a mom as my mom did. I pray I can always have that balance between encouraging my children to stand on their own feet but cuddling them up with tenderness when they need it.

Here are some of my favorite memories of my mom:

• She was always nice to people. She smiled and was kind - even when there was no reciprocity.
• She could enjoy the greatest laugh-until-it-hurts-and-you-might-wet-your-pants laughs...serious belly laughs. So contagious!
• Water fights...my mom loved a good water fight!
• She would regularly perform the miracle of the fishes and loaves, with food and clothes, as she raised us on a meager secretary's salary.
• She always had a green corsage for us to wear to school on our national holiday, St. Patrick's Day!
• When Megan and I were young, like 3 or 4 or 5, she used to pin a note to our jackets before we went out to play that said "Please don't feed us. We won't eat our dinner" (we lived in a safe place...the neighborhood behind Brother Rice high school in Birmingham....it was called the Catholic Ghetto)
• She occasionally let us have breakfast for dinner...what a treat!
• She made me take typing for 3 years in high school so I would have a skill to fall back on in case no other career panned out.
• She had incredibly versatile tears. She would cry from sadness, happiness, laughter, joy...or a hallmark commercial. (We all have that in common with my mom. My dad used to laugh that our tear ducts were too close to our bladders. With 7 women in the house, someone always had to pee or was crying)
• She loved her garden
• She talked to me about her impending death as she was dying from breast cancer. She let it be out there...out in the open. It was a gift. And a privilege to be a part of. She was the bravest person I have ever known.
• She hated cats but every cat within a mile ran to her. So funny!
• She would fall asleep while we watched t.v. in her bed with her. She would wake herself up snoring and say "Oh, was I snoring?" Then giggle and go back to sleep.

I could go on for days...

xoxo