my mom was THAT mom

my mom was and still is THAT mom. you know. the mom who did it all...,

when i was younger my best friend lost her goat ( yep not a typo). her family had a couple of goats and drank goats milk. didn't eat sugar. although i don't know what that has to do with having goats its just an interesting little tidbit. she and her sister loved those goats. so when one of them went to goat heaven my best friend was devastated. i never knew this story until i was older but apparently when the goat went to goat heaven she called my mom. mine. we didn't have a goat. or a farm. we had a dog. but we had no experience with goats. or goat heaven. but my best friend called my mom. she needed to know that God would still take care of her and watch over her goat up there. and my mom had words of comfort that a little girl who just lost her pet needed to hear. she was THAT mom.

during the summer she would make us a huge pitcher of red kool-aid with 1/2 the sugar( she was all about limiting sugar intake) and my brothers and i would sell kool-aid with every ounce of our skinned knee selves. she would take out sleeves of dixie cups and let us drink and sell our huge picture day after day. we usually only sold our usual cups to the mailman and to her but she still let us waste as much kool-aid as we needed to feel that we had put in a good day in sales. she was THAT mom.

when it was time for the annual fruit sale at our school. she would be up till all hours of the night making orange slice shaped cookies in order to promote the fundraiser. we would eat all of the broken pieces and remake as many as it took. we looked forward to the sale every year. not because we loved produce but because of moms orange cookies. she was THAT mom.

whenever it was one of our birthdays. ( and there are 5 kids) she would spend all evening making our favorite meal and desert. no matter what. she would make sure. and of course each of us were all different ( still are) . not one of us like the same meal or the same desert. she would come home from working third shift at the hospital and make sure that she didn't sleep too long in order to have time to cook our huge birthday meals. and when everyone else would enjoy the meal she would sit back and wait for everyone else to have enough to eat before she would put food on her plate. and she never took the last piece of desert. never. she was THAT mom.

when it was time for school plays. and there we a lot of them. with three sisters in the family. we had drama year round ( plus school dramas). so suffice to say my mom was busy. she was blessed with this amazing gift of sewing. she would measure, tape, pin, adjust, sew, readjust, fit and sew again so every child had a costume appropriate for their character. we would wake in the morning to the slow churning of the sewing machine and be lulled to sleep again by that same sound. and while we were on stage singing and acting our hearts out she would be behind stage letting all of us have our moment on stage. she was THAT mom.

when i was 21. in college. single. and sat at her dining room table sobbing that i was pregnant. she knelt. with her head in my lap and wept. she held me as a cried and yelled and heaved over and over my pain. she held me. she said she loved me. no matter what she loved me. she understood me. she was THAT mom.

every morning i would watch her in her rocking chair in the living room. her robe too old. glasses on the tip her nose reading her bible. reading. praying. listening to what the Father had to tell her. every morning. she was THAT mom.

she was THAT mom.

she IS that mom.

i pray someday i can be a LITTLE of THAT mom.