Thank you, Mom, for everything you do

As Mother’s Day approaches, it’s given me time to think about what my mom has meant to me. Since I hate buying cards from Hallmark, and sending flowers that will be dead in a week has never appealed to me, I would like to say thanks here and now to my mom and other moms around the world.

Thanks, Mom, for doing 20 years of laundry for four boys who could get dirty just standing in one place. For all the dirty underwear, filthy socks and unidentifiable stains on T-shirts, thanks for doing this unthankful job. This alone should qualify you for sainthood.

Thanks, Mom, for putting food on the table. Dad may have paid the bills, but how you stretched 1 pound of hamburger into meat loaf for two days is a miracle. You always made sure we ate together, laughed together and cried together, which was one tough deal when the teen years rolled around.

Thanks, Mom, for always encouraging me. You always thought I was a good writer, even when you had to proofread my stuff at 11:30 every night. Not to mention making my Abe Lincoln costume at the last minute. And thanks for signing the one of many permission slips while we were running out the door.

Thanks, Mom, for giving me your last $2 in your wallet, so I could get a hot dog after the game. And thanks for never letting me know you went without lunch at work that day because of it.

Thanks for all the carpools, trips to the doctor and rushing back home to get my baseball glove sitting on the dinner table.

Thanks for not over-mothering me, either. Sometimes you let us find out things on our own, and this helped us learn. When I would come back in from playing in 30-degree weather, and hypothermia was setting in, I never once heard “I told you so.”

Thanks for not freaking out the first time I drank too much beer with my friends. You let me deal with my own misery, and never gave my friends the evil eye when they came over.

Thanks for giving me the gift of humor. We both have the trait of crying when we laugh, and I’ve cried a lot trying to make you laugh over the years. You always were my best audience when I tried out new material. And getting you to cry with laughter was the ultimate high.

To my mother-in-law: Thank you for the beautiful daughter you raised. She is independent, smart, talented and funny. And thanks for trying to get me to eat more vegetables than cheeseburgers.

And to all moms out there: Have a happy Mothers Day. You deserve it.