I have a file on my desktop that I call INSPIRATION where I put little things like this above.  I actually used this quote for Mary Fowler’s 12th birthday party, printed them out, and tied them to all the party favors- some of her favorite treats!

But today this quote makes me think of someone else.  My dad called me yesterday to tell me that one of the families I babysat for lost their mother to cancer over the weekend.  The Saturday before Mother’s Day.  Her name is Cassidy, mother of FIVE children, and I am in shock.

I met this sweet family when I worked at the athletic club in high school.  I worked in the nursery and they brought their oldest daughter (at the time their only child) in and Cassidy stayed to chat while the dad played racquetball.

Cassidy was such a bright, energetic, and happy mother.  Her eyes were luminous, her smile infectious,  and she spoke with such excitement!  We talked a lot and she loved my name- I found out later they named their second daughter Olivia 🙂

One time, years later, I was working in the bakery during college and without even seeing Cassidy, I heard her booming, excited voice happily chatting with her clan of kids somewhere else in the store.  For whatever reason at that particular moment, I decided to BE HAPPY.  And by that I think I mean project happy.  That’s what she was doing.  Projecting happy energy.

I don’t even know if I ever spoke to her that day but we must have stayed in touch somehow because they came to my wedding and my photographer took many photos of their sweet family:)  I sent them the photographs in a thank you note but I’m going to resend with my condolences.

I feel compelled to let her children (daughters and son) know how inspiring I found their mother to be and how her radiance reflected onto, enhancing my personality.  How amazing.  She really did leave a sparkling impression on me.

This year my mother-in-law came to stay with us for Mother’s Day weekend and it was very relaxing.  Saturday night Adam and I went out to dinner with friends and grandma took the kids to her favorite restaurant.  Then Sunday we all just hung out around the house.  After looking at all our Italy pictures, Davis and grandma were dying to make homemade pizzas so we did that for lunch and then Adam grilled out for dinner.

I made a salad and grandma made her wonderful baked beans.  The dinner took me back to when Adam and I were dating and I would go to his house for dinner.  His dad always grilled on Saturday and Sunday.  It is still hard to believe sometimes he’s gone.

If I’m completely honest, I would love to have a family photo each Mother’s Day of my sweet family in our Sunday best.  I love all of those beautiful, Spring photos I see shared on Facebook.  What a treasure!  But that does not happen each year (and even when it does, Adam really resists so I try to save my battles for the Christmas card photo:) so I really started thinking about something I could do to get some of my reflections down on paper.

A couple of years I wrote each of the kids letters and stuck them away to read later.  This time I thought about one of my favorite photos.  I actually have it in a frame on my bedside table.  It was taken when Davis was born and I love that it shows me eating him up!  I love it.  So I used one of my digital scrapbooking layouts and journaled a little bit.

To all those thoughtful, caring, supportive, selfless, unconditionally loving moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!