It was my greatest pleasure to celebrate today with my family! CJ made me a mom seven years ago, and paved the way for his brother and sister. While some days I want to hide in a closet with a gallon of ice cream and get five minutes of peace, I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

Today was a fabulous day, my first as a mom to three, on the outside, and as low key as I wanted. Hubby listened well this year. He was working last night and on his way home stopped to get me breakfast. Jack slept in so I didn’t even have to leave the comfort of my bed. Steve took care of everyone when he got home and let me go back to sleep/relax. I ended up falling back to sleep for a few minutes, but mostly just enjoyed my time alone. It honestly felt very weird to not have a child hanging on me.

While I have spent the last thousand days in quarantine with my kids, today felt different. We watched some tv, made some crafts, and just hung out. I bathed both kids, time I really enjoy with them, and headed to my parents, after picking up an ice cream cake, to see my mom from afar. I made a cute little craft from the kids and my sister was meeting us there to give it to her.

Even though we have not been able to see a lot of each other, it was important for me to see my mom today. She taught me everything I know when it comes to my kids. She truly has put my sister and me above herself, and never once made us feel like she wasn’t there for us. Good times and bad, my mom is a rockstar.

Most of us have memories with our moms that we won’t ever forget, and I am no exception. There were series of moments that truly showed me how strong my mom is, and how she wouldn’t let her fear show to her girls. I honestly don’t remember how old we were, but my sister and I had been forced to go food shopping with my mom. I know it was after school because she was in her school clothes, high heel shoes and wearing a long tan trench coat (Isn’t it weird the specific things we recall?). I also remember we were at Price Chopper and my mom was driving a standard Toyota Corolla. Bear with me because this detail will be important later on.

I can almost guarantee you that my sister and I were giving my mother a hard time about something. Food shopping was not at the top of our list for fun things to do after school. In true mom form, I imagine her giving us the death stare but never punishing us in public. She was rushing in her heels and we were walking past the registers when it happened. She didn’t see the jar of gravy that had fallen and spilled all over the floor. My mom went down. She went down hard.

I imagine there were a few seconds of silence, and don’t remember if anyone came over to help. It stopped my sister and me in our tracks. We watched my mom get up and I remember seeing blood. Lots of blood. My mom looked at us, grabbed her hand, and told us to follow her. We didn’t say a WORD! We walked with her to the customer service desk where she informed an employee that she had fallen and cut her hand. Only my mom didn’t JUST cut her hand. She had a piece of glass stuck right in the middle of it.

As a good employee should, they offered her bandages, I am sure an ambulance, and anything else they thought she might need. The details get fuzzy, but I know that glass was somehow taken out of her hand (my guess is she took it out) and we left with a roll of paper towels, most wrapped around her hand. We left the store in silence. Walking to the car I am sure we asked one hundred times if she was okay, and one hundred times she must have told us she was fine.

It was her right hand and she somehow drove that standard Corolla home, got us dinner, and put us to bed without blinking an eye. I am sure she needed stitches. There was no way she didn’t, but I don’t remember seeing anything more than a bandaid on it after that day. I don’t know if she was compensated by Price Chopper but we never spoke of it again.

That’s my mom. She doesn’t miss a beat and doesn’t throw blame. She’s a beckon of strength to her children, the light in her grandchildren’s eyes, the one who keeps dad in line, and one of the most amazing humans I know. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t tell me how much they love her. She taught for over twenty years and all of her students still say she was their favorite. So, today while my kids honor me, I honor her. The simple fact is, without her there would be no me. Without me, there would be no them. I will forever carry her in my heart and be so incredibly thankful for all the memories we have made.