MOM=WOW

Last year I "unofficially" celebrated Mother's Day since I had discovered I was pregnant the week before.

This year its official, I AM A MOM!
And I am in awe of the women who helped raise me, especially my mother. She did the majority of the raising after all.

My parent's separated when I was six and while they tried to make it work for many years after that, they eventually went their separate ways. They "always" worked to raise us the best they could, together but apart. And they did a fine job, thank you very much! But as it is with many families of divorce, my sister and I lived with my mom and our father saw us every other weekend and maybe a week night, if I remember correctly. My father remarried my fabulous Step mom, Maggie and she too was a huge influence on the person I am today, as are both my grandmothers, and even Maggie's Mom, Step-grammie, Marcie. Each of them played their part in rearing me and all of them molded me but there is something I have to say about my mom, WOW! MOM=WOW!

Working, keeping a house hold (very neat and tidy, all the time, something I will fail at miserably) and raising two daughters is no simple task. I can say that now... now, that I am "beginning" to understand it.

I never knew why my mom would get so upset when I didn't do the dishes after school, when I wouldn't hurry and take a bath, when I would take my ever-loving time getting ready in the morning, or when my little sister and I would call her at work arguing on the phone over something stupid. Uhhh...got it now Mom! And Boy, if Karma is as bad as they say she can be, I maybe in for a rough ride. I was a smart ass kid and I could pick a fight. If Mom said the sky was blue I said it was yellow. Yep its true, that's a quote from my mom. I know those arguments must have broken her heart over and over again. I am so sorry Mom! If I knew then...

I can't imagine those conversations with my own daughter but I know they are bound to happen.

How exhausted my mom must have been physically and emotionally. Day after day she would get us up for school and ready, then go to work and come straight home to make us dinner, help us with homework, clean up after us, bathe us, put us to bed and do it all over again the next day, baring any major hiccups like an illness, broken down car, or tantrum.

I know, I know, women do this every day with 3, 5, even 8 children and I am in awe of them too. It is tough to be a mom now more than ever cause that is not your only gig. We forget that! You are expected to work, run a household, be a fabulous lover and wife. Its exhausting, stressful and wonderful all that the same time. Mom's don't get the respect they deserve, at least mine didn't. I never fully understood. Oh, if I could only go back Mom!

I am so thankful to have had a mom like my mom who cared enough to put up with me good and bad. She is my best friend.

I take this new world, title, relationship, responsibility, and love I am discovering and I pray I do it justice.


Thanks MOM!