mother of the year*

i know that i've talked about my mom on my blog before, and i appreciate her every mother's day, but this year is especially poignant for a couple reasons. one is that we just moved away from her and that has been hard. i don't like to think about it, so i won't dwell on it because then i won't be able to type due to blinding tears. the other reason is that my mom has been such an amazing help to our little family for the past month and a half.

my mom is a busy woman. on top of normal day-to-day responsibilities, she is currently the relief society president in her ward, which gives her demanding and time consuming responsibilities for the physical and spiritual well being of the women that attend church with her. she also helps to care for her parents, taking them to several appointments and visiting them often throughout the week. as if she weren't busy enough with these things and her own life, my mom devoted the month of april and the first week of may to me and my family.

i'm not exaggerating. my mom took my girls while i was in the hospital after having jonathan and then as soon as we came home, she came to my house several times a week for the next three weeks and essentially packed my house for me, while simultaneously keeping my household going with cleaning, feeding the kids, etc. i severely overestimated how much i would be able to do on my own with three small children and she kicked right in and picked up the slack without missing a beat. while all of this was going on she also attended all of randy's graduation events (which take up a surprising amount of time). oh, and did i mention that she was deathly ill one weekend and within 24 hours of that was back at my house packing again?

after spending all of april helping us pack, she (and my dad) also devoted the first week of may to help drive us up to seattle and then proceeded to help me unpack all of my boxes and get me settled in so that i wouldn't be overwhelmed and probably still surrounded by boxes.

i can never repay my mom for all that she did for us this past month, but console myself with the thought that with all of the time that she spent helping us, she was also spending time with me. it was a nice way to try and get as much time in with her as i possibly could before we moved. we had many hours of being able to talk and visit while we were working and hopefully that made it worth it for her. it certainly made all of that packing more enjoyable for me. 

love you, mom.

*honorable mention for mother of the year goes to my mother-in-law, who came and helped with the kids and packing after jonathan was born and who would have done as much as my mom if she lived by us.