It's Mother's Day 2016

This is my first Mother's Day without my own Mom still here on earth. She's lived across the country from me for the majority of my life - but she was only a phone call away.
Last year, I was able to visit her in May. It was my last week of Leave from the kidney donation. She had been sick off and on and I know she worried about the kidney donation and I wanted her to see me in person. See that I was fine.

Sitting on the porch - the only photo I took on the trip.

It was a fun visit - short but filled with a lot of errands that her assisted living sent me on. It was hard for her to get in and out of a car, so I don't think we went anywhere together - not that I can remember.
I bought her some nice white velcro tennis shoes, I bought new sheets for the hospital bed.
I am so grateful that I could make that trip.
I had hopes of returning in August. But she passed away 6/29 at 91 years old.
Having her in my life for so long is a blessing I'm grateful for. But I miss her terribly, especially on Mother's Day.
I think she'd be laughing if I could tell her about my fitbit and trying to reach all the goals. And she'd worry that I'm getting too skinny - even without seeing me!
This week, I added biking back into the mix. I biked to work on Wed and Thursday - and even with doing squats and all this walking, the hills were difficult!
Yesterday, I biked to the Farmer's Market - I had all the time in the world - my favorite kind of day off.
I spoiled myself on Mother's Day weekend too! (Dave wasn't there to stop me! He had to do a funeral)
I bought: a "rag rug", a new tiny purse to replace the African one that is getting thread-bare, 4 tomato starts (I hope I don't kill them), 3 felt-board sets, 1 tile (that I'm sure my kids would have purchased for me had they seen it) that says: "Best Freaking Mom Ever" And some asparagus for dinner!