Mom Time: Birthday and Mother's Day!

Look at these gadgets!

In addition to Mother's Day, Mom celebrated her 67th birthday. To keep her 'hip', I loaded up my old iPod full of tunes and gave her my previous camera. She was SO excited about her new gadgets! :) 

For her birthday, we went to the Farmer's market together, something we haven't been able to do together in a long time. The rain let up just enough for us to go. We had sushi, a big salad, and a fresh chocolate torte from the market for dinner and dessert, giving Mom a much needed night off from cooking. We topped off the day with an episode of her favorite show, and our favorite show to watch together, The Good Wife. 

Mother's Day was rainy and dreary, so we ended up snuggling up in bed for another episode of The Good Wife in the afternoon and one in the evening. It felt completely relaxing and indulgent just to watch some TV and have a quiet day together. No gifts and no cards on this day.

She's already used her red cast iron pot from Jeannine several times. Her beloved one from my grandmother had seen better days.

We're working very hard to make holidays less stressful. I feel a lot of pressure to show my mom (and others) appreciation through gifts and cards, but I increasingly have less energy to do these things. If I'm stressed about getting a gift made or a card made, I find that I'm not able to be present just to spend time together. So, we really focused the two days on simple, satisfying ways to spend quiet time together. 

She has taken the pressure off of me. It is me who has to let go of the unrealistic expectations of myself.

Make a wish!

Thank you to my mom for showing such resilience, patience, strength, adaptability, and grace in the face of our very new and different life. We so often focus on the person who is sick, but without caregivers like my mom, I would not thrive in the ways that I do. My life is immensely blessed by having her as my mom. Every day she takes care of all of my instrumental activities of daily living without complaint or resentment. She has learned to find enjoyment in things that I can also enjoy. We have created a new life filled with lots of love.

I love you, Mom.

Emily