This weekend, I traveled. Mom got out of the hospital, and is on her way back to normal. Although I left her thinking she looked a little peaked, this morning she sounded great, and my sister, Julie, texted me to say she’s doing much better. Sorry, but I don’t trust Mom to tell the truth about her health. She is always, “Great,” or possibly “just wearing out a bit.” So you can imagine that first on my Gratitude this week is Mom.
♥ Yes, Mom is 87. And yes, I’m beginning to think perhaps someday…. but not today. I treasure every moment with her wit and wisdom. There’s nobody quite like her. The biggest complement I got this year was my son looking at me and saying: “You’re turning into Grandma.” I’m still on my way. She is a wonderful role model.
♥ Siblings. We all got together to complete Mom’s honey-do list. We hauled mulch, weeded flowerbeds, edged walks, washed showers, etc. We ended the day with a cook-out, and a lot of memory-lane walking. We gave Mom a hand-carved walking stick. My cousin, Jimmy makes them. He carved a walnut branch into a memory stick, with various suggestions from all her kids: knitting needles, sewing machine, violin, tractor, rosary, etc. All the things that make up who she is. Plus, a tree producing children and grounded in faith, with her and Dad’s initials carved in the trunk and hash marks for children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Oh, it made several of us cry tears of happiness.
♥ Interstate highways and Oasis rest-stops and sparse traffic. We never know what conditions will be like driving through Chicago. No back-ups at all. Six and a half hours each way. Wheee! We flew.
♥ Rain. My oh my, I forgot how many shades of green Mother Nature can produce. I love it.
♥ Ice cream. Nuff said.
♥ The wonder of new life: 4 new calves born in the last week. They look so shiny and new, all up, kicking and romping. All but one, reminding me how precious and precarious life is.
♥ A can-do heritage. Second and third generations helped with Mom’s list.
♥ Happy Mothers’ Day wishes. By text, by email, by voicemail and in person. So much thoughtfulness came my way.
♥ Midlifeboulevard.com. My tribute to mom got published just in time. Wheee! again.
♥ Shared calendars. I love when the kids let me know what’s going on so I can attend events of the grandkids. I love that Love-One gets updated automatically, when I update what I’m doing. I do love talking to him, but I like having documented evidence that I did tell him. (I bet at least some of you know exactly what I mean.)
♥ CecCe who invited CoCo over this weekend, and all the fun stories CoCo told me about their adventures.
♥ The honesty of children: “Grandma, I love this picture of you the most, cuz it doesn’t even look like you.” (Ummm-Hmmmm, that’s what editing can do for an old crone.)
If you want to read more Gratitude Lists, hop over to Laurel’s at Alphabet Salad, she’s collecting gratitude.