It’s my mom’s birthday today. In honor of her birthday I’d thought I’d share some of my favorite memories related to my mom.

1. I remember her sitting on the windowsill in my room and singing “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

2. One Valentine’s Day we came home from school to find tie-dyed Ty teddy bears sitting at each of our spots at the kitchen table. It made me so happy.

3. One fall night my mom and I watched Carrie just the two of us. We sat on the couch under a blanket with all the lights turned off (we “made a movie theather”) and it was pitch black outside, maybe even thunderstorming. It was so scary but so fun at the same time.

4. Late middle school I was having a really hard time. My mom stuck a note in my lunch, a little card with a pastel landscape on the front. I don’t remember quite what it said but it was short and sweet and written in pencil. It was something along the lines of “keep your head up, you don’t have to make decision now” and at the bottom “I love you, Mom.” I remember exactly where I was in the hallway when I read this.  It was so comforting and helped me feel at peace.

5. About this time my first year in DC my mom came down for a visit. I was still teaching and having a really hard time. We went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants and sat outside for an early dinner. Then we walked back to my apartment (about 2 miles), stopping for a pumpkin pie on the way back. We ate half of it that night just the two of us. I think she brought me Ugly Betty on DVD too. Having that show to watch really gave me an escape.

6. A couple years ago I called my mom to rant about Mike. I went on and on about how he couldn’t wash dishes and that I’d find them back in the cabinet dirty. It was driving me crazy. This rant was full of hysterics, yelling, tears, the whole bit. I remember sitting in my bedroom talking to her on the phone and she said “honey, you have to pick your battles, maybe you do the dishes etc” my response was “I don’t have many battles to pick so I choose this.” She laughed, said that was true and that it was a good thing. Then she asked “are you sure this is about the dishes? Could this be about something different?” How did she know?? She hit the nail on the head. I really wanted to be engaged and was sad that we weren’t. It was so comforting that she opened up that conversation and just let me cry about not being engaged without judgement.

Do you want to wish my mom a happy birthday?  

You can do so by sharing a memory with your mom. Call, email, text, write, post it on my Facebook wall and tag your mom–wrap it however you want–but let your mom know you’re thinking of her and that that memory means something to you.