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.