What I did on my summer vacations

Yesterday we celebrated three birthdays: My two sons, born on April 14th and April 8th, and my youngest daughter, born on April 7th. I can hear all your brains working backwards 9 months....I'll save you the trouble: July...It's JULY!! The ironic thing is that the boys were both due in March, the girl in May...go figure.

Anyway, now that my baby is 21 and ALMOST out of the nest, I get to reflect on 29 years of motherhood and see how I did. For as long as I remember being a good mother has been my top priority in life. That's all I wanted - to be a good mother. So......did I do it? I suppose that's not for me to say, and maybe it's not possible to quantify, but I look at all four of my kids (the other was born in October - smart girl!) and I see mature, responsible adults. Even the ones who grew up kicking and screaming every step of the way....I see the way they live, the way they interact with others and I think, "Wow! They are such great young adults! Maybe I did at least some of it right!"

There have been many proud moments in my life as a mom. Watching my oldest perform a sax solo in high school and quietly weeping, wishing my dad were alive to see him. Being with my #2 son and his wife when my first grandchild was born - His calm, gentle manner not only with his laboring wife, but with his worried mother-in-law was something that every man should have witnessed. He took charge, he took care - of his wife, his mother in law, and his new baby daughter. Seeing my oldest daughter marry her "cutie" on a hill on the farm where I grew up. Witnessing my youngest overcome her fears and set off on a trip to Michigan..... wow....they've grown up.....and we all survived (me with a few more wrinkles and gray hair for which I blame them every chance I get!)

Someday, when my life is finished, I hope I will have earned these three words as my epitaph: SHE DONE GOOD