It's not Mother's Day...but

I appreciate my mom. I appreciate her for a number of obvious reasons that anyone who has met her will already know. I am finding that as I age I appreciate my mom in a different way. I appreciate my mom because I am the most recent version of my mom. It's a little bit shocking, really. People always told me I would grow up to be my mother, but and no offense mom, I thought, "Ok sure, I will be my mom, but I will be a much cooler version of her!"

As I progress on this journey of step-motherness I realize a few things:

1. My mom is was and always will be pretty darn cool.

2. I am not nearly as cool as my mom is or was.

3. I find that the most annoying things that my mom said to me were the most true and I regurgitate them often.

4. When my mom said she didn't like to give me consequences for my actions, she really didn't like giving me negative consequences for my actions.

5. Sometimes when I thought that my mom got a kick out of my frustration with her, she really did.

6. My mom actually did know better.

7. I really did listen to my mom, even or especially when I was pretending not to, or really didn't want to listen.

8. I used to think to myself, "My mom doesn't know how good she has it since I could be such a less well behaved child."

a. I was probably the most challenging child

b. I was definitely the most challenging child.

9. My mom was way more patient than I gave her credit for.

10. I am proud to be just like my mom and grateful I had such a good one to emulate.