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Mother’s Day 2020

Mother’s Day 2020 was a fabulous day. Albeit it was my first Mother’s Day without Jake home. Fortunately, my airmen was able to call me this evening via FaceTime. Admittedly, I feel super lucky that I got to see his face two days this weekend. At any rate, today was fabulous because I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do. Namely, I didn’t touch anything having to do with virtual school today. Indeed there was nothing disagreeable in my day.  It was a great day!

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My morning started with a hot coffee from Dunkin’ and a fresh bagel toasted with cream cheese from Joey’s Home Bakery – gluten free. As I enjoyed my coffee and bagel, I watched some of my favorite It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia episodes. Indeed this show and it’s insane cast of characters remain one of my favorites. The show is so well acted and well written.

Normally I rest on Sunday, but since it was Mother’s Day I decided to take a vinyasa class with Monica. Oh man, she kicked my butt. Truly, her vinyasa classes are rigorous and challenging. Even so I can see how much progress I’ve made since the beginning of quarantine. Of course, as you may have seen from the previous blog lost, I warmed up for the class with my sweet puppy Anakin. Needless to say, Monica’s class was the perfect Mother’s Day gift to myself.

While I was getting my namaste on, the Hubby was working on building me a book case in the family room. I am so excited for it!!!!! Honestly, I can’t wait until he’s able to sand and stain the shelves. Obviously, it is going to look absolutely amazing once completed. Not too mention, I’ll be able to empty a whole tub of books that have been waiting for a bookshelf.

Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any awesome, a package was delivered by Amazon containing my Mother’s Day present. When he officially became an airmen in February, he was given a challenge coin to signify this accomplishment. Challenge coins have a long and significant history in the military. Customarily, they are bestowed on military members to signify their acceptance and membership to a group or organization. Undoubtedly, they are a big deal.

You can imagine my glee when I received my first coin today from my airman. That’s right I am the proud recipient of an Air Force Mom challenge coin. Significantly, he felt I had earned it by working towards the BMT PT standards while he was in basic training. While I am still working on making the running standard, I was able to meet the standards for push-ups and sit-ups. Needless to say, I love the gift so much and the thought he put into it. I’m a lucky military mama!

There are two amazing ladies that I was able to speak with today that made my day complete. While I logged some walking miles on the treadmill, I was able to chat with both of grandmas. Fortunately, my parents are able to deliver the Mother’s Day gift I had made for them. I bought them, and myself, a custom mug off of Shutterfly commemorating Jake’s BMT graduation weekend. They both loved it!

Admittedly, I was proud to here my Grandma H say how her mom (my great grandma) talks about Jake and his visit with her. What could be more beautiful than that? The fact Jake made time to visit her meant more to her than we could ever fathom. Sometimes it’s the small things that make the biggest impression.
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Of course I was also able to speak to my mom today, but I speak to her everyday. Some times I speak to her multiple times a day. Truly, if you know me, I am an independent, strong willed person. Even so, I still love to talk to my mom (and my dad) about life and the kids. My brothers and I have been blessed to have a mother, really two parents, that have always put us first. They’ve been incredible grandparents to my children and their cousins. My mom’s cookie making and kickball skills will be remembered for years to come.
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She’s not only a great mother to me and my brothers, but she’s also a great mother to my grandma. I always love when I talk to my grandma and she says her “mother” won’t let her do something. For example, my mom wouldn’t let her go shopping early on in the pandemic before things were shut down. Indeed whatever my grandma needs, my mom is there to provide it for her. It’s not always easy when the role of parent and child reverses, but my grandma loves her “mother” and appreciate how well she does her job.

To all my fellow mom bloggers in the blogosphere, I hope your Mother’s Day was everything you wanted and more.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*Reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

*Vinyasa Class with Monica from Yoga Mundo 

*Watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Balthazar

*Morning and afternoon meditation

*Week 11 BBG day 7 rest

*Obedience training Anakin courtesy of myself and the Mayor. 

*Took Anakin, Maya and Athena on a walk. 

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Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers in my life and the blogosphere!  I spent my Mother’s Day relaxing at home with our boys and puppies.  Hubby made me a wonderful breakfast of crepes, an omelette and some bacon.  It was sinfully delicious!  The crepes were spectacular with cloud berry jam, whipped cream and fresh berries.  On the second crepe, I had blueberry jam that we bought in Norway on it and it was delicious.  I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do when we’re finally out of Norwegian cloudberry and blueberry jelly.  I guess we’ll just have to go back and buy more!

We spent Saturday night at the amphitheater in West Palm for the Alan Jackson show.  To be clear, I’ve never been a country music fan.  In fact, I wasn’t originally planning to go with Goalielocks and the Hubby to the concert.  At least, not until I got the guilt trip from Goalielocks, who reminded me that I had no problem going to the Foo Fighters with Jake. I, of course, reminded him that I love the Foo Fighters….  Nonetheless, I accompanied them to the concert last night.

Fortunately, the weather held out.  I purchased seats under the roof of the amphitheater just in case the meteorologists happened to be right.  They weren’t, but the assigned seats were nice.  We had a great view of the show and weren’t fighting the crowds on the lawns.  As for the show itself, both LeeAnn Womack and Alan Jackson didn’t disappoint.  I’ve heard many of the Alan Jackson songs enough to know the words.  Moreover, they bring back fond memories of my mother-in-law, who enjoyed his music.

While I don’t enjoy their music, I would have had to be deaf to not hear how talented they are.   LeeAnn Womack has some lungs!  Surprisingly, that’s not even the Tito’s lemonade talking.  They were legit.  I’m not converting to country, but enjoyed spending the evening with two of my guys.

We faced time my mom and grandma today to wish them a very, happy Mother’s Day.  It would have been nice to be up in Minnesota with all of them.  After a late night last night, we decided not to do to brunch on the water.  This decision was reinforced by the weather outside, which brought us heavy rains all day.  Apparently, there’s a low pressure system of the southwest coast of Florida that may develop into a tropical system.  Oh joy!

Grandma Sandy’s Graduation Pciture

It’s time to head off to bed and recharge the batteries before starting another crazy week.  To all the mother’s out there, I hope you had a wonderful day.  To the beautiful mother’s in our lives, who have felt the excruciating pain of losing a child, today we send you our love and strength.  Lastly, for those whose mother’s have passed, today we send love your way.

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Mother’s Day part 1

Writer’s block hit me as I tried to write this post.  How does one adequately express the significance and difficulty of this Mother’s Day in the context of Jacob’s forthcoming graduation and the many losses that have occurred over the past several months?  I’m not sure it is possible, but I’ll try.

Motherhood is at once both a supreme gift and a supreme burden.  Before you jump all over me for the word burden, let me explain.  As my mom so wisely warned me when I was pregnant with Jake, there is no bigger emotional investment than   having a child.   Yep, she was right about that and pretty much everything else.  Every up and down our children experience is felt deeply in our heart and soul.  The highs are magnificent, but the lows are devastating.   Even worse as our children experience the lows, sometimes we have to step back, guide them and allow them to figure it out.  It is excruciatingly painful but if we always save them from themselves, they’ll have difficulty as an adult working through problems.

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I would love to say that I’m always super fantastic at this, but I’m not.  I’m still working on it.  Motherhood is really all about OJT (on the job training) as we would say at work.  Yeah, there are books like What to Expect When You’re Expecting or Raising Boys.  However, these guidebooks left a lot of information out.  They didn’t warn me that my youngest would pull his pet beetle out of his pocket during the intermission of Jacob’s choir concert or that they may try to make a lizard habitat out of the buffet table’s drawer.  Yeah, the books left out a lot.  I am fortunate to have an amazing mother, who I think did a great job raising me and my brothers.  She’s always available if I need her advice or just to talk. My grandmothers and great grandmothers were also served as strong examples for me as well.

I understand fully that to be able to call my mom on mother’s day is a luxury.  Mother’s Day for many is reminder of a painful loss and for some it is the exclamation point to their recent loss.  For us it is a reminder of the loss of my mother-in-law Sandy (pictured below with the Mayor.)  Six years later, we miss her immensely.  Today pray for those that have lost their mother, particularly those whose loss is recent, and for those mothers that have experienced the loss of their child.   This Mother’s Day celebrate your mother, spend time with her, appreciate her and spoil her as it is a gift to be able to share this day with her.

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