Apples and my Mom

I love my mom, can I just tell you? She is such a wonderful example of selfless giving. She never ever brags, to the point of having too much humility. She has eight kids and still manages to help whenever help is needed, with much personal expense(monetary as well as energy.)

Example #1. My mom went with the kids and I to the apple/pumpkin farm a couple weeks ago for a field trip with Son's preschool class. My mom and I split a 40 pound box of apples, thinking that 20 pounds each was way plenty. Of course, by the next day I had about a dozen apples with tiny Daughter-bites out of them. She was getting into the box, taking one bite out of an apple, then putting it back and getting another one, and so forth. But I digress...

The kids and I went over to my mom's house to make sugar-free apple pie slices and bottle them. We were supposed to do her apples and mine, but she wasn't feeling up to doing all of them, so she worked and basically did all the work for mine, getting almost no "fruits" for her labor. We made a tiny bit of apple butter and I insisted she keep half of it, but other than that, nada.

Example #2. This is a dual example of both my parents. Both of our households have fireplaces as our main source of heat in the winter, so we planned a woodcutting trip together to stock up on wood. Working with more hands makes the work go much faster, and of course spending time together on the mountain is priceless. We went to get the permit for the wood, and could only get one cord(a measurement unit) of wood(we were hoping to split 3 or 4 cords.) My parents gave us ALL of the wood from the trip, since we needed it more than they did. They came and worked and drove their truck and did not get one bit of the wood. My mom and brothers J and B even came and unloaded it for us, since L is in class pretty much all day on Saturdays now.
So there you have it. I could go on and on about all the little things and big that my parents do for us, but I thought I'd just share the two most recently on my mind. These memories are huge for me. And also, I have to tell you one more thing my mom said to me as we were deep in conversation over apples. "...Just in case I never told you, I think you are very talented and beautiful." That is huge for her, if you note in my first sentence how humble my mother is. She still wanted to make sure that even if I never heard her bragging about me, that I knew exactly what she thought of me and how proud she is of me. She has managed to gracefully let me grow into an adult and take my own path without losing my relationship with her or her opinion of me. She still sees me for who I am and values who I have become. And that is incredible to me.