mom

I figured out what to give my mom for Mother's Day: the classic "I want to make it personal but am broke as hell" mix cd. Score.

You know, I'm pretty good at telling my mom she's awesome throughout the year and not just on Mother's Day. But I guess it's only now when we really think about just how much she does.

My mother is an extraordinary woman. There is absolutely no exaggeration in that statement. She is my hero.

She's had five children, all with no epidurals. And she's done an incredible job raising us and keeping our family a family. Our friends always talk about how awesome our family is because we actually act like we like each other. I give all that credit to her and my dad.

She must have been so exhausted at points but she still kept going. I don't know how many times she's been woken up in the middle of the night (most likely from us pulling her eyelid open) because of a bad dream or stomachache. There were countless "Mom? mom? mom! mom mom mom MOM mom. mom. Mom. mom." marathons. Infinite scrapes bandaged and prayers said for us. Tons of hot meals cooked, songs sang, books read and lessons learned the hard way. She somehow always knew everything, but didn't always let us know that and we didn't always listen. Our childhood was happy even during rough times. We didn't know how hard our parents worked.

She's loved us more than anyone will ever come close to. She's the one who hugs us while we cry our hardest. She's the one who is the happiest for us when something good happens.

She makes dorky jokes and likes to listen to country music while she cleans the house. She enjoys drinking beer on the back porch. She watches Lifetime movies on Sunday afternoons. She gets song lyrics wrong a lot. She'll still snuggle any baby she can get her hands on. She always smells like gardenia.

Besides all the mom stuff, as a person, she is just amazing. I'm not kidding, strangers marvel at her charisma. Her laugh automatically makes you happy. I know I can do anything in the world I want to do because I've seen her do seemingly impossible things firsthand. I get my own strength and confidence in part from watching her and knowing that it's possible. She's always said that I was a great role model for my younger siblings, but where do you think I got it from? Her.

I do appreciate her, because as I got older I saw how hard she worked every day. She still works hard every day. She is beautiful and brilliant. My mom rocks.