Day 49: Happy Birthday Mom

Day 49. Happy Birthday Mom.

Today was a big day. It was my moms 50th birthday. Holy cow, what a woman. Okay. Before I go into how much I love her, I have to get one thing off my chest: I. Made. Dinner. Full on dinner. By myself. This has never happened in my life. But today was the day. Here is a little visual to show my handiwork.

We had fish, baked potatos, sourdough bread, broccoli, and yummy strawberries. Looking at this now, this is such a "woman dinner". Haha. It is so light and fresh. But, the food was fabulous. I finally am getting hope for my future in cooking. One thing you have to understand is, my mother is an amazing cook. These mere fact that she wanted to eat at home on her birthday is a sign of the level of food snobs we are. Just kidding. That is dramatic, but it is somewhat true. She has taught us how food can be actually good when made at home. I so appreciate this. Anyway, after dinner we opened presents, drank tea, ate 2 bags of Milano cookies, and drank cups of the decaf Starbucks Christmas Blend coffee my grandmother dropped by. So good. Anything Christmas is good. Add it with coffee and it is better.

Is it bad how much food is in my blog?? I don't know/don't care. It is my goal to eat what I like whenever I like, for the rest of my life.

After we opened gifts, we sat around then played Uno (pretty much the only game we ever used to play), then watched old episodes of Monk. Seriously, tonight was so classically my family. My mother is such a remarkable woman. I really don't know what I would do without her. She is kind, giving, patient, selfless, forgiving, and so many other things. I could go on for a while. She has been a stay at home mom all my life and we have had a lot of time together. What a blessing. She has taught me how to function in practically every aspect of my life. She is also the one who cleans up her 18 year-old baby's puke all night then still has enough energy to haul the other kids to school 4 hours later. She is the one who literally spent days and nights caring for my grandma last year before she passed away and still had enough energy to come home and feed us a full dinner. She is the one who swore she would never drive me to school when we lived a block away, yet she still ended up taking me everyday. She is the one who encouraged me to do things I hated, yet only grew stronger from them. She is the one who has shown me what healthy relationships look like. She is the one who was there when I chose to go to Chemeketa. She was the one who encouraged me with the words, "Just fall in love with Jesus". She was the one who has devoted all her time and energy to her family and the people around her. She does so much, my mind is overwhelmed with all that she does that it could take hours and days for me to brag about how amazing she is.

My mother does not get thanked nearly enough. So mommy, THANK YOU. You are such a wonderful woman and you do so much for me and the rest of our family. I want to be like you. I cannot wait for the day you get to relax and let me take care of you. I love you so much and I cannot wait to celebrate life with you for another 50 years. I love you.

So mom, thank you for keeping this family functioning. We love you so much.

San Fransico ♥

Happy Birthday Mom.