My mom is awesome. She’s caring and smart and loyal and funny.  She laughs with me and cries with me.  She’s my confidante, my advocate and my friend.  And today, on Mother’s Day, I’m going to share with the whole wide world just a few of the many, many things that make my mom the best mom a kid could ask for…

My mom’s smart.   She’s got her bachelor’s of education and her master’s of library science. She’s been a teacher (even a French teacher), a teacher-librarian, a school board consultant, a teacher-librarian again when she decided consulting wasn’t for her, and a retiree with lots on the go. And despite all these roles she found the time to be a mom to my brother any I, and to maintain her own personal relationships with my dad and with her friends, many of whom she has had since she was a kid.

My mom is selfless. I can’t being to calculate how many hours she spent hauling us back and forth to dance, and drama, and piano, and swimming, and skiing, and concerts, and friends’ houses, and dates, and more.  My mom drove an aquamarine frost mini-van while my dad got the sports car.  My mom has always had the time to talk, or even just to listen.

My mom has never felt like an enemy.   I know some kids had epic wars with their moms for years.  I never really did.  Sure, we got on each others’ nerves (probably even more than I know as per this week’s Modern Family), but my mom never felt like my enemy.

My mom loves to do stuff.  She’s in a choir, plays tennis, is in a book club, gardens, decorates and redecorates the house, goes to zumba and aerobic dance classes, and curates a website called Maureen’s Friends and Family in Front of Libraries Around the World.  She runs and walks the (somewhat reluctant) dog.  She’s auditing a university course for fun.  She’s a prolific reader.  She likes to have afternoon naps with the (not-so reluctant) dog in the sun.

My mom is adventurous. She went to Egypt in the early 70s. She waited to have babies until she was well-traveled, and then she continued to travel with her kids, instilling a sense of adventure in us — even though this hasn’t been the best thing for her.  She’s got one kid in Australia and one kid who keeps going off to gallivant around the world and returns to places like Vancouver or Toronto, not Edmonton.  So now her adventures include going to visit her kids!

My mom is quirky. She prefers things to be black and white; she doesn’t clean as she goes while she cooks; she is full of sage advice (advice such as “everything’s better on the prairie”); she has nicknames for anyone and everyone; and she is a little bit of a goof.

And then there are all the more selfish things that make my mom awesome: my mom thinks I’m funny (like seriously funny); my mom is the only person I can go shopping for me with; my mom makes me feel better when I am sick; my mom cooks me tasty meals when I go home for a visit; my mom makes my husband feel as though he is part of the family; and the list just goes on and on and on.

So today, on Mother’s Day, I want to say thank you Mom, for just being you. I’ve learned more from you than you will ever know, and if one day I am half the kind of mother you are, my kids will be in for a treat.