Tribute to Mom

No Snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except on Days that start with S. Too simple for you? Simple is why it works. Look here for questions, introductions, support, success stories.

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OrganicGal
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Tribute to Mom

Post by OrganicGal » Fri May 02, 2008 2:56 pm

Mother's Day is just over a week away, and for me, it is my 1st one without my Mom, so I thought I'd start a thread on Mom's to show our appreciation.

My Mom passed away this past Aug. , 4 days before her 81st B-day, and 3 days after my 44th. :cry:

Mom had a quick wit, and never hesitated to 'tell it how she saw it', :lol:
She was a very good basic cook, and made fantastic Spaghetti and meatballs. She loved to play euchre and do crossword and word search puzzles. She loved music, was always whistling...which of course drove us all nuts....but I would love to hear her whistle one more time. She loved cats (and dogs) and always tried to have a cat if she could. The nursing/retirement home where she last lived had several cats and she loved them all.

Shortly after she passed away I had 2 'visits' from my Mom, the first was short and sweet...I felt her love for me so strong. The 2nd was longer and we had a great 'conversation' She looked radiant and sat in a chair while I talked to her about my life and how things were. I hope (and know) that I will have more visits from her.

Mom was overweight for as long as I can remember but I have pics of her where she was very slim. I think her weight issues started with convienence foods and going back to work once I was in school full time.

I love you Mom. :D

So all you other No S-ers, care to share about your Mom?
Creating and sustaining the No S habits are the only thing that will take me in the direction I want to go!

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fkwan
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Post by fkwan » Fri May 02, 2008 3:54 pm

OG,

My mom did the New York Times crossword in pen, and made the best spaghetti and meatballs on earth until my husband came along.

I wish I could have a "visit" from her. She died when I was 13, in front of me, of a cerebral aneurysm. Well, she had the reaction in front of me, and died a week later in the hospital after lapsing into the customary coma (no aneurysm clipping operations then).

I've never gotten over it.

She had a copy of the world's greatest cookbook, The Settlement Cookbook, with all her handwritten recipes falling out of it. Some of the greatest: tempura-fried chicken, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, burned macaroni and cheese (chewy, cheesy, burny crust).

She wanted to be a mathematician or a jazz musician, but was a housewife and after separating from my dad, sold insurance. Her favorite composer was Antônio Carlos Jobim of "Girl from Ipanema" fame.

I loved Jobim's music so much I learned Portuguese to read his biography, and well, reader, I married the mathematician. :)

f

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Nichole
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Post by Nichole » Fri May 02, 2008 4:11 pm

Image
My grandmom and my mom. Circa 1952.

I don't think this is specifically for deceased mothers per say, but for some reason I want to do a tribute to my grandmom. After living half paralyzed from a stroke for about 5 years, my grandmom died around 2002ish.

She was definitely my kindred spirit, though I didn't know it at the time. We're so much alike and now that I"m growing into an adult, my mom is amazed at how much we look alike. She said just last Thursday that I'm like her "clone." She loved to draw and paint and sew. I also love these things and have a knack for them. I'm also like her in that I'm very quiet and serious most of the time.

She also loved movies. I remember her favorite movies were Mrs. Doubtfire, the original Parent Trap, The Wizard of Oz and the Sister Act movies. Hehe.

Since this IS the No-S diet forum, I'll mention that she was overweight, but I think it was mostly because of her thyroid. But it made her cuddly and nice to hug :)

She had an interesting life I never knew about. My mom was born out of wedlock and no one knows the full story of who my grandmom had an affair with. Things weren't like they were today and my grandmom and mom were really looked down upon in their family. She never married in her 70 years. She lived through the Great Depression.

One of my greatest regrets is that I never got to ask her about these things. I was only about 14 when she had her stroke and didn't yet feel the need to get to know my grandmom more. That and I didn't want to upset her.

I still have dreams about her once in a while in which she tells me that she's alright, which is SUPER WEIRD. I think it's cause she was so isolated in her head her last few years and I worried about that.

Anyway, I loved her for her warmth and everything she taught me and her passing of her talents onto me. I'll always miss her.
"Anyone can cook." ~ Chef Gusteau, Ratatouille

janiean1
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Hello ! :)

Post by janiean1 » Fri May 02, 2008 4:13 pm

Wow, did this hit close to home for me! My mother passed away this past November here at home. She battled cancer for the last 10 years. I am dreading this next Mother's Day because it will be my first without her, as well.

This is the lady who was such an awesome cook, and when I was morbidly obese she tried to tell me "just eat 3 meals a day, and cut down your portions." LOL Well, I wouldn't listen to my mom, and ended up getting gastric bypass surgery. I think my mother could have coauthored the book "The NoSDiet." LOL My mother was never overweight. She ate three meals per day with no seconds, and she never snacked! I remember her baking a chocolate sheet cake on the weekends, or a batch of her wonderful chocolate chip cookies. On holidays she would "go all out" with her cooking!

Anyway, I miss my mother so very much, but I wouldn't want her to be in pain again. She was an amazing woman. She never complained about her illness even up to the last day.This is a woman who also never gossiped. It makes me so sad to be without her, and my dad is very grieved over losing her. She died at the age of 86. I was almost 46 years old when she passed. I just have to remember she's with Jesus now with all of her relatives, and walking those streets of gold!

Sorry to be so mushy on here!!

Janie :)

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JillyBean
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Post by JillyBean » Fri May 02, 2008 4:16 pm

My Mom has been gone almost 14 years now. She died at age 74 and it was a shock. I had been for a visit that day (we loved to play Upwords together) and she was (seemed?) fine. She had diabetes which was well under control and she died of congestive heart failure. She never complained, otherwise that too might have been manageable.

She made the best spaghetti sauce ever! Everyone loved her. She never said a bad thing about anyone in her life. She could feed an army (and they'd love it) at the drop of a hat. I am number 5 in a family of 6 and we all felt special. She taught me to knit, to cook and keep a clean home, to raise my children well, to be a good friend, to put family first. I love coming across recipes or cards with her handwriting in it.

My first "visit" from her after she died came in a dream a few weeks later. She was with us at family reunion (which we have every summer still), and I was surprised to see her there. She said, "This is eternity, Jill."

Looking forward to seeing you again someday, Mom. I love you.
Jill

The food I eat today is my choice! What price am I willing to pay?

"There are no failures, only feedback." ~~ Robert Allen

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OrganicGal
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Post by OrganicGal » Fri May 02, 2008 4:28 pm

Boy these are wonderful stories about Moms, and I'm certainly not restricting this post in any way to Moms who have passed. I want us to honour all Moms here, whether they're still with us or not. :)

Please keep sharing everyone.
Creating and sustaining the No S habits are the only thing that will take me in the direction I want to go!

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Fri May 02, 2008 4:48 pm

My mom died 43 years ago March 30. Though there's rarely a day that I don't think of her, I find that now I remember more "about" her than I actually remember her.

Everyone loved my mom, too. I never heard her say an unkind word about anyone and I've never heard anyone say an unkind word about her.

My mom owned 4 cookbooks and I never saw her use any of them. I can't say that she was a good cook, though. There were a few things she made that were outstanding, but the best you could say about much of what she cooked was that it was edible!

Her potato soup was fantastic, and I never found a recipe for it. It took me about 25 years to figure out how she made it.

About 18 months after Mom died, my dad remarried. My dad and I were always at odds, but I'll have to say this for him: he had great taste in women.

My step-mother died over 20 years ago. I cannot imagine my life without the influence of these two women.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

Buffalo Gal
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Post by Buffalo Gal » Fri May 02, 2008 5:52 pm

My mom was a great cook too! She was never overweight but all four of her children have struggled with their weight. Hmm!

Anyway! She gave us everything she could and worked really hard.

Mom and I have locked horns through the years but she was a good mom. She has Dimensha now and it has been difficult to care for her but at least we still have her.

Buffalo Gal
If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

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Mavilu
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Post by Mavilu » Fri May 02, 2008 11:49 pm

My mom died when I was twelve.
She had battled kidney failure most of her life and had seen her only sister taken by the same condition.
It was very difficult to her, but always tried her best; she had a wicked sense of humor and loved to share dirty jokes with a few trusted friends, she was also very, very stylish and since she couldn't do much in the last years of her life, she just dressed up like a queen every single day.
She was also very stern and a strict educator, but could be also the sweetest of mothers.
Everyone always figured that my dad would survive her, of course, but when he died on an airliner crash, she just lost the will to live and one night a year later, she got really sick but didn't let me know; she agonized in bed, right next to me until my cousin who lived with us got up to work and realized she needed help; she died an hour later in the hospital.
It has been very hard for me to come to terms with it, especially with the fact that she had been dying right there, beside me and I never woke up.

But I try to honor her in the best ways I can: she couldn't eat much, her diet was very restricted even while she was in hemodialisis (SP), so, I make a point to never deprive myself, I always feel like it would be insulting to her to just not eat this or that because of vanity, when she would have killed to be able to eat most everything.
I try to follow her style advice, even if my life is about being a homemaker and I live in jeans and T-shirts, I'm not dyeing my hair, because I see my mother in those gray hairs and I make a point to be thankful that fate wrought me to the U.S. in my adulthood: a couple of years before they died, my parents came to the U.S. in vacation, they had a wonderful time and they loved it here, especially my mom; she cried when they left and cried again when the airplane touched the groung back home, she had convinced my dad to move here.
So my dad spent a few years negociating a move here and just a couple of months after he died, he got an offer from an american company to move and work here.
That also broke her heart.

But what do you know, thriteen years later, her youngest meets an american man working overseas and they fall in love and marry and she ends up living where her mother wanted to live!.
To this day, ten years after I moved to the U.S., every time I go to a new place, somewhere she would have love visiting, I like to think that she is just by my side, enjoying the views.

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Beckycan
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Post by Beckycan » Sat May 03, 2008 12:49 am

My Mom is gone, too. She died in June, 1987, when I was 26 years old. I still miss her. When Dad died 10 years later, it sure left a huge hole in my life.

My mom was a small woman, never weighed more than 130 and that was when she was 9 mos. pregnant. She was a great Mom to 7 children, and just always kind and sweet. She also was a great cook -- and loved to bake stuff (on the week-ends) -- she was NoS way back when! :) No wonder she kept her nice figure through 7 pregnancies!

Here's to Mom!
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A turtle travels only when he sticks his neck out. Korean Proverb

blueskighs
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Post by blueskighs » Sat May 03, 2008 1:00 am

WOW!
that is interesting how many of us have lost our moms and sound like they were really significant losses for a lot of us.

I lost my mystical magical mother when I was 4 1/2 when the courts gave custody of my sister to my dad and his new wife ... needless to say my stepmother was not magical, mystical .. or much fun!

WE COMPLETELY FOUGHT AND RAGED ABOUT FOOD....
my dad said when I was an infant I would not eat for anyone else but my mother ... when I was nine months she got sick and apparently he panicked trying to feed me, he ground up a steak in a blender and force fed me...
hmmmmmmmmm... no wonder I am vegan/vegetarian :D

Anyway ... my mom died about 8 months before I tried to reconnect with her when I was 24, but that journey led me to my grandma...
she died two years ago at 94 ... she was a gem.

I simply ADORED that woman, we were very very very close and I completely owe the woman that I am to that lady ...

one time I was sneaking a chocolate pie into her house ... she was supposed to be taking a nap :D and she's legally blind ...she caught me coming in the door and she was like "what's that you have there?"
I was like" uhhhhhhh Chocolate pie"
I will never forget what she said ...
"Chocolate pie? that sounds good... I'd like a piece."
We sat down and had chocolate pie and I didn't binge anymore on than.

She was a sweetheart!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blueskighs
www.nosdiet.blogspot.com Where I blog daily about my No S journey

icz
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Post by icz » Sat May 03, 2008 4:14 am

Well, to add to the thread -- My mom died 3 years ago in August of lung cancer. (I was 36). Truthfully, my mother hated to cook and saw it as total subjugation of women. I have always loved to cook, and it was years before she came to appreciate my love for it. (I am a part time food writer.)

My mom would sometimes "diet" with me, but was slim until menopause. Then, she became round like the rest of her family. Even though she didn't like cooking she had a few dishes she was known for -- her deviled eggs, and her cheese crackers with a pecan on top.

Although we were sometimes at odds, I miss her every day.

Laff
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Post by Laff » Sat May 03, 2008 6:09 am

What a nice thread in honour of our mothers.
My wonderful Mom died last September and this weekend we are going to my home town to scatter her ashes at her request. She worked most of her adult life as a bookkeeper (why didn't I get any of those organizational skills?). She loved to have our friends around. Neighbours were in and out of our house all the time. As soon as her famous bisquits would start baking the neighbours would magically appear. She was an amazing cook and would not hesitate to clip a recipe out of the paper and then have it turn out perfectly. She did pass on that love of cooking and I thank her for that. Her love was unconditional and I thank her for that (I was not an angel)! Mom was an excellent Bridge player, often played in two clubs. My Dad died when I was 16 and as long as she could still talk (30 years later) she referred to him as the love of her life. Sadly she lived the last ten years of her life with Alzheimer's Disease.
I miss her.
Gotta smile. Laff

Achieving begins with believing!

CrazyCatLady
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Post by CrazyCatLady » Sat May 03, 2008 6:30 pm

Great thread. I am enjoying reading every word about your Moms and Grandmoms!

My Mom died of a brain tumor at age 65 on Memorial Day 2002. She was diagnosed on September 11, 2001. She was a great Mom, and always found a way to make each of her 5 children feel as if we were her favorite. She was not a great cook. But I have many happy memories of baking cookies, or making meals with her in our large kitchen. She battled her weight most of her life. We went to weight watchers together! She would have LOVED No S!

Out of 3 sisters, I lucked out and got her cookbook. I don't use it much. I made copies of her favorite recipes, those in the cookbook, and those falling out of it, for my baby sister.

As a Mom myself, I celebrate Mother's Day for me with my husband and children. I purposely try to make it a good day. Same with her birthday...I focus on her twin sister and my niece share that birthday with her. I will always love my Mom, and I certainly miss her a lot. And I feel extremely blessed to have had such a wonderful woman as my Mom!

Deepest condolences to all who have lost their Mom! Especially those who were just "babies" when they lost them! (I felt like a baby when my Mom passed, although I was 40!)

Informatix
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Post by Informatix » Sun May 04, 2008 4:16 am

Thank you all for sharing your stories about these remarkable women! I am sorry to hear about your losses, but it's wonderful that you are able to share your cherished memories with us.

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Beckycan
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Post by Beckycan » Sun May 04, 2008 12:50 pm

CrazyCatLady wrote:
Out of 3 sisters, I lucked out and got her cookbook. I don't use it much. I made copies of her favorite recipes, those in the cookbook, and those falling out of it, for my baby sister.

I had to laugh when you talked about getting your mom's cookbook. For years after my mother died, I lamented not asking her for some of her special recipes before she died. (She died after a long battle with cancer, so we had time to prepare for her death.) Dad could never find what she had done with them -- Mom was disorganized and her recipes were always just in a jumble in one of the kitchen drawers. 9 years later, when Dad passed away, I had the job of going through all their things and cleaning out their home. There inside the front and back covers of her favorite cookbook -- Betty Crocker-- she had taped those favorites so we could find them.

Becky
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A turtle travels only when he sticks his neck out. Korean Proverb

Savita
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Wonderful women

Post by Savita » Sun May 04, 2008 1:35 pm

I am very fortunate to have a wonderful mother, whose influence in my life I appreciate more and more each day as my daughter grows! I may not have been easy to manage in my teenage years but she was rock-solid in those tempestuous days. She's always taken a keen interest and encourages all my career and life choices.

My grandmother was 78 years when she died in 1999, on my mother's 60th birthday after years of suffering with Alzheimer's. I think of her almost every day till today. She especially loved her eleven granddaughters, always keenly following our academic progress. She was particular we had some form of physical exercise regularly. She was ahead of her times in her thinking and attitudes. After having brought up seven children and been guardian to a vast number of nephews and nieces, she was a master child-psychologist... If I can be anything like her in bringing up my daughter, I'll consider both of us blessed.

Savita

wosnes
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Post by wosnes » Sun May 04, 2008 2:28 pm

Over the past few years I've gotten Mother's Day and birthday cards from both my daughters that essentially say that as they get older and want to establish their own identities, they realize how much of who they are looks and sounds a lot like me. In fact, this year for my birthday they got me identical cards that said exactly that!

I think the hardest part of being a mother is letting your kids live their own lives and make their own mistakes - be who they are. After you've "been there, done that" (not to mention writing the book and designing the tee shirt), you tend to want to keep them from making the same mistakes. Can't be done most of the time. While hopefully they'll listen and not make some of the same mistakes we did, they can't learn everything from the knots on my head. They've got to make their own mistakes.

Both of my eldest daughter's best friends from childhood have married and are now in the process of divorcing. The funny thing is that with both of them, I told my daughter that it just didn't look like the right thing for her friend to do for various reasons. At the time she said, "oh, Mom...." But I told her that I'd been around for a while and had some life experience of my own, plus I'd observed lots of other things over time. Some of the common sense things we tell them are truisms because that's how thing generally happen. It's the rule, not the exception. Are there exceptions? Certainly. But generally speaking we live by the rules, not the exceptions.

Yesterday she said, "Mom, you were right."

On to the eating habits....
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

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OrganicGal
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Post by OrganicGal » Mon May 05, 2008 8:01 pm

Don't let this thread die folks. :) Remember our Mom's here for Mother's Day
Creating and sustaining the No S habits are the only thing that will take me in the direction I want to go!

noSer
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Post by noSer » Tue May 06, 2008 3:26 am

Everybody is writing about their moms, and I love my mom dearly, but want to write about my mother-in-law. We live next door to my in-laws. You don't know how many people gasp when I say that with a look of horror on their faces. But they are the greatest people in the world. Before we got married, she told me that they had decided a long time ago not to interfere in their kids' lives, and they don't. They are happy to help with whatever you need or want, but never criticize what we are doing. My mil has watched our kids almost every Friday night so that I can go on a date with my DH. She also watches them one afternoon a week so that I can go shopping by myself! What can you say about such a great woman. Thanks for raising a great son, too. Happy Mother's Day!
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MerryKat
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Post by MerryKat » Tue May 06, 2008 10:20 am

To my Mum:
I am blessed at 35 to still have my mum alive and living close to me. I am an only child and was 11 when my dad passed away unexpectedly, so my mum and I are very close. My mum is a pillar of strength and love and is always there for me and my family with her truth and honesty shining through. She is my prayer warrior and my best friend. She is the supreme organiser (sadly I never got her skills) and a devoted Ninny (gran) to my sons (who adore her). I thank the Lord daily for giving me a mum who is a role model and friend.

To my Mum-In-Law:
I was blessed to marry into an amazing family (nearly 12 years ago) and have the dream MIL. We are so alike it is scary and she has a quiet, commanding dignity that I pray I learn as I mature. She is the opposite of my mum and for that I love her dearly as so am I. She is a blessing to my son's and I thank her for raising such a wonderful man for me to marry. I thank the Lord daily for blessing my adult life with another mum who is a role model and friend.

To all of you who have lost your mum's (((((((((((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))))))))))
Hugs from Sunny South Africa
Vanilla No S with no Sugar due to Health issues - 11 yrs No S - September 2016 (some good, some bad (my own doing) but always the right thing for me!)

GLENDA
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TRIBUTE TO MOMS

Post by GLENDA » Tue May 06, 2008 5:57 pm

I really love all of your posts about moms! HUgs to all who have lost theirs. Mine is 87 and has slight dementia. It only made her sewwt which was good because she could be very crabby! We have the Mom we love with the rough edges knocked off!!LOL My mom taught me how to study, use my imagination, got me interested in Metaphysics, told me how to "eat the elephant" one bite at the time & how to start at the end nad work backwards to organize a project!!!! Lots of other stuff, but what she didn't teach me her mother did. I loved my grandmother-she lived to be 96. She always told me I was wise beyond my years & had good common sense-which at the time was great because at home I was stupid!
She taught me to look at everything as the possibility to be something else-more creativity! She sewed fantastically but was afraid I'd catch my finger in the machine so she never taught me to sew. Later I learned & always thought she was around when I'd sew! I love the "visitation" stories. I truly beleive these are very real. I hope some day to have my own experience with Mom or"Danny"-my granny. My daughter is my step daughter & I often wish she could have a visit from her mother who passed away when she was 2 1/2. I became her mother a year later. I was always sad for her not really knowing her mom. A few years ago, her mother's best friend came to town. We took her out to eat & afterwards she & my daughter & her fiance' visited into the night about her mom & what she was like as teen & young adult etc. I LOVE that. I will always be grateful to her for that. Anyway, I also have a wonderful mother-in-law who will be 95 this Sept. & is still spry! Blessings to all of you & your Mom's & Grandmaws!

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OrganicGal
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Post by OrganicGal » Sat May 10, 2008 3:17 pm

Tomorrow is Mother's Day!!! Surprise! :lol: just kidding.

So in guess I don't get a chance to say so....HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! to ALL the Mom's out there and too all their Mom's :D
Creating and sustaining the No S habits are the only thing that will take me in the direction I want to go!

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