Celebrating Mom

This year marked two years since my mother passed away. I really wanted to honor her this year, instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I actually did really well on the day, but was feeling rather depressed the day after. Dale was on his annual fishing trip so it was just me and the kiddos. Ethan was being a tween and said some stuff that made me take him to his grandparents, Jack stayed too. It ended up being okay. We each grieve in our own ways, which in the moment can be hard to deal with. We had a nice lesson in how to convey things tactfully without making your mom want to knock you out.

So, me and the girls off on an adventure. We headed to Main St. and went to the chocolate shop for treats. The roses had all started to wilt and had petals falling off. Regan could have spent all day gathering up rose petals. Then we headed to a little boutique and got marbles and pretty soap. Mom lived on Main St for a while when she sold her house before she retired. She would take the kids to the chocolate shop for chocolate covered marshmallows and she had quite the marble collection. I keep them in a mason jar in the window sill at the kitchen sink.

We went to the thrift store and looked around. We ended up scoring a brand new, tags on bathing suit for Ellie for $2.50 and a brand new shirt for either one of the girls for another $2.50. Not too shabby. When I was a kid I pretty much lived on thrift store clothes. There was a neat little thrift store on Main St. and it had old creaky floors and we would spend what seemed like forever in there. Everything was super cheap and there were usually some really neat things. Totally different from today's more commercialized stores, but we had fun nonetheless. We went home and picked up one of Mom's baskets and a pair of scissors for each of us. We went down to the creek by our house and picked thistles and wild flowers. Her cottage was decorated in purple and I had thistles in mason jars at her funeral. They really start to bloom around the end of May and early June. Every time I see one I am reminded of her. We took our finds home and made bouquets, carefully!

We went to the grocery store to pick up some groceries and get a treat for after dinner. Strawberry shortcake for the win! Then it was movie and snuggle time. I was so glad I decided to celebrate her with my girls. She would have loved every minute of it. I still struggle with her being gone and I imagine I always will, but being able to celebrate her and even being able to allow myself to still grieve the loss is okay.