Today is Thursday, so I’m going to tell you about someone I’m thankful for.  It’s also lent, so I have a Daily Creativity for you also.  I combined the two :)

I’m Thankful for my mother, who I lovingly call Momacita.  It’s not just an internet code name I use, but something I started when I was younger.  Whenever we were in a store and I called out “Mom,” looking for my mother, six women would turn around.  So I started calling her Momacita to circumvent this.

My mother isn’t perfect, but she is awesome.  She taught me a lot of things, like how to be strong, stand up for yourself and that you can take on a million things and not be a failure.  I have a habit of wanting to do everything, and perhaps part of that is because my mother always was doing everything.  With a father out to sea for half the year my mother was a single mother, not just when Dad was away, but even when he was home because she was the only constant parent (aside from the help my siblings gave her.)  My mother took care of not only her nine children but also took in extras.  She volunteered most of my youth and then went to work full time when I was in the eighth grade.  I watched my mother rise from middle management to executive pretty quickly and found that to be an inspiration.  My mother taught me how to interview, how to conduct myself in business and how to keep professional without being cold. (After an interview, send a thank you note, trust me, it works).  I want to do everything because my mother (and other women in her family, I’ll get to those later) take on everything.  Because of this I also know it’s ok to fail sometimes, it’s ok to not be perfect and it’s ok to pick yourself up and try again.

Years ago I was living on Long Island and Momacita and I fell into a nice groove.  We would go to the Laundromat together each week and do laundry.  We would meet at the gym and work out (I should post the picture of us crossing the finish line at the long island half marathon here, but I’m not sure I would have her permission) together five days a week and trained for races together.  We would hit up the wholesale bulk store together and split up the giant packs of food.  It was more than just doing errands, it was a time to talk and get to know one another.  In my whole life I think that time might be one of the best times with my mother, we formed a bond then that I hold onto today.  Now that I live in another country I miss my mom, I miss being able to run errands with her, to go for a manicure with her, or just workout.  I miss her, but because of the bond we have I will always have her with me.  That, and Facetime :)  Thanks to Momacita being plugged in, all I have to do is use the facetime app on my computer and it rings her iPad, we make sure we video conference every week (since we realized we could do this) and it makes me very happy to be able to visit with her, even if I am so far away.

As for the daily creativity.  I drew this with pencils, based off a snapshot I have of her holding my nephew.  It’s not quite Momacita, there is something off, but it’s kinda close.  It’s always hard to draw people who are so close to me.  I don’t know why.