Mothers... a belated Mothers Day post

As I fight to stay awake after only getting home after 10 pm, I wonder:  how do moms do it?

It's 11:22 pm at the start of this post and I finally finished dishes that were (gasp) a week old. Mind you, I've been running around so much lately, it wasn't very many dishes, just very gross dishes. They're washed, the counters clean and then it's on to the bathroom for my bedtime routine. I finish that up and realize: the laundry is sitting on the washer and needs to be folded and put to bed I mean, put away (perhaps I need to be the one put to bed!). I finish folding the laundry, wander past the piles of unread newspapers that I foolishly signed up for, walk past the living room with the painters tape - awaiting the second (and hopefully final) coat of paint, and as I walk with my laundry to my room, I hear my landlord upstairs. My landlord who is in charge of putting on a full course meal for 140+ graduates and families at tomorrow's school graduation, the same woman who has 3 kids - the oldest just had his 6th birthday party on Saturday and I wonder... how do moms do it?

Really, how DO YOU DO IT?

Mami, not only did you take care of us, love us, feed us, spend ridiculous amounts of time with us (or doing stuff for us me - like my paper route because I was too busy volunteering and being social...when you should have been SLEEPING, since you were on nights...!!) and you still worked full-time - on night shift, with little sleep because as a kid (and as a teenager, shamefully) I did not understand the importance of you getting sleep. You would comfort me through the stupidest high school crushes, when you were probably fighting to keep your eyes open, and yet you did it with a smile. You made sure you were home for us when we came home from school, even though it meant sacrificing the sleep you needed because sometime around 8pm you would need to start getting ready for your 1-1/2 - 2 hour commute to work a full night shift at the post office, and then you would come home and greet me with a kiss, a smile and a snuggle and make me breakfast.

How DID YOU DO IT?

And now you continue with Ashton, that boy knows so much love between Mischo and you, and all the others in his life - but you have set the bar high.

You say that my life exhausts you, but thinking of all your sacrifices, your love and your neverending supply of energy and encouragement, exhausts me.

THANK YOU MAMI(KA), you're the best mom a woman could ask for!