My Mom...

Ever since I was a little girl, I have admired my mother.

I remember all growing up I used to wonder how she was capable of staying up ALL NIGHT LONG cleaning the grout, paying the bills, cleaning the house, folding the laundry, taking care of the animals, etc. Then when morning rolled around, she'd be up by 4:30 (most likely going to sleep around 3:00) with her morning workout finished, breakfast made, hair fixed, cute pj's still on and all the kids gathered around for scriptures before heading off for school. I remember I used to think "Man... I wish I could stay home from school today and go back to bed. Mom is SO lucky that she doesn't have to go to school anymore." Little did I know... Mom was running errands, cleaning the house again, paying more bills, running a preschool, taking care of Ben's needs, running my dad's recording business, taking care of an enormous yard and making it look immaculately beautiful year round, driving my siblings and I to and from our various dance, gymnastics, saxophone, piano, harp, violin, tennis and percussion lessons and about a million other things on top of that. Alright fine, I knew very WELL that my mom was doing all of those things. And it has always amazed me. She is incredible.

How does she do it all? How does she do all of that and STILL find time to tell me stories about her childhood, to teach me how to cook and bake pies, to make me costumes and take me shopping, to teach me how to sew and cross-stitch, to introduce me into the magical world of fairies and to paint pictures in my mind so vivid that I STILL believe we are surrounded by fairies and nymphs, to do art projects with me, to set up the sprinklers so I could run through them with my friends, to help me with lemonade stands, to help me put together and run summer camps and then let me keep all of the proceeds, to come to all of my musicals, choir concerts and plays, to come to my piano, harp, dance and percussion recitals, to always encourage me to be better, to help me with my homework, to help me with my many high school responsibilities, to help me with my many boy dramas, to hold me and love me when I cried, to sit with me night and day when I was in the hospital, to be a spiritual giant in my life, to teach me the power of prayer through example, to teach me the importance of going to church each week, to show me how to take care of Ben and to have faith in me from a very young age that I could take care of him, to be one of the reasons I decided to become a nurse, to support me when I decided to get married, to help me put together the most perfect wedding, to be my school teacher while we lived in Israel, to teach me how to grow a garden, to let me experience the joys of watching baby chicks hatch each spring, to clean my bunny's cage when I "forgot", to feed my bird when I legitimately did forget, to show me how to love, to teach me how to be a wonderful\supportive wife, to help me get jobs, to enroll me in dance classes, to buy me new harp strings when my old ones broke, to teach me how to save my money, to show me the importance of staying out of debt, to always be my biggest fan, to bring me soup when I was sick, to hold my hair back when I was throwing up, to bring our family together each night for family prayer and scriptures each morning, to be my Sunday school teacher for about 3 years, to be the greatest mother any child has ever had. How did she do it? How?

I have thought about this many times throughout my life.. And have hoped and prayed many times that when the time comes for me to be a mother, that I might be like her. Even if I could just be a small bit like her, I feel like my kids will be pretty dang lucky. I sure have had an incredible role-model. And you know what the best part is? She just keeps getting better. I know it seems impossible for someone so close to perfection to actually get better... but... I tell you right now... she is living proof that it is possible.

Of all of my mom's incredible accomplishments, I do believe the greatest one of all, is that there has never been ONE moment/instant/millisecond in my entire life when I have EVER doubted her love for me. And that, my friends, is what makes her so great. Yes, all of the other incredible things were wonderful too.... but she did them because she loves me. She loves me. And I shall never doubt that.

I love you Mom.