Happy Mother's Day

I have been lucky to have amazing women in my life. Strong, bold, caring women that make those around them feel important and loved. Women that have changed my perspective on what mother, wife, and friend means. I wish you could all know them too.

The photos today are of my mom, Renee, Grandma, and my brothers and sister when we were much younger. My mom is a woman who knows how to persevere. She knows how to get things done. She was one of many children in the world that was also care taker for her siblings. In some ways, she's been a mom her whole life.
I grew up out in the country in Eastern Washington. Home schooled until I was 8, I was happy to be dirty, play outside, and not brush my hair. I would bring hurt animals I found in the woods inside the house, try and grow avocados with the huge pits my mom would leave in the window sill. We would haul wood, grow a garden, and make bread. We worked hard.
Mom was always out there with us. Running the log splitter, burning pine needles, shoveling snow off our huge uphill drive way. One of her kids would call with broken down car on the east side of Spokane and mom would go to the rescue. A friend needed a place to stay and the couch was always open.
Mom is mom to everyone. She has been a carrier of children for close to 20 years, driving a school bus in Medical Lake. She knows their names. Knows their friends. Knows when something isn't quite right, and what to do about it. She tells stories to her kindergartners. Pays attention when she takes a sports team to an away game. She is present and witness to thousands of people living and changing.
Happy Mother's Day mom. You are amazing.