I’m sure you’ve been thinking of your mother this week. Even without a holiday prompt, you probably think of your mother often. I know I do.

The longer she has been gone, the more I think of her. Not in the “Oh, gosh I need to call her” way or “I wonder if she knows how to …” way.

Now, it’s mostly

“Yikes. I just sounded like my mother”.

That’s okay. My mother was incredible. And the older I get, the more I realize just how pivotal she was in the lives of so many.

Mothers are our core. And the core to so many other communities. If you don’t believe me, try leaving one child out of anything where there is a mother present. Or think back to the first time you were forced to carry on a family tradition without her.

As strong as the mother force they became, each of them were unique women first.

Here are five random things about the woman who was my mother:

She loved lipstick.

She wasn’t dressed without it. She wore it even when she gardened. She kept close to 100 tubes in her vanity drawer, including the first lipstick she bought as a teen. A rite of passage for every young girl in our family was nosing through Mom’s lipstick drawer.

She made our neighborhood bully cry.

Though he was as tall as she was, she got in his face and simply told him how disappointed she was in his behavior that day. She was that kind of mom.

She was still doing cartwheels as a grandmother.

I’m sure that’s where my daughter learned to do one. It certainly wasn’t from me.

She bought me two matching antique china teacups as a gift once.

She told me we would drink coffee from them when she visited, to remind us how special our time was together.

We did. And it was. I am  very selective still about who uses those cups.

Once, when she was taking us to school, she got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign.

She was wearing her pajamas.

She was mortified. But we started laughing. (I’m sure my brothers were pointing at her.) The officer smiled and told her “Be more careful”. She did not get a ticket.

Do you have a favorite memory of your mother? If so, please share it with us in the Comments section.

Better yet, call your mother and share it with her.

Happy Mother’s Day Brooke, Chelsea, Corinna, Megan, Thalia and anyone else celebrating motherhood for the first time. Now you know what to do with those few extra hours you had every week!

Read on for more Mother’s Day inspiration-

Each of these three articles spoke to me in some way.

Sometimes mothers have to rein in the caring so they can sleep at night. Sometimes they have to step up to the plate because no one else will.  And for that we  honor and love them.

No one tells you when you’re pregnant. But once you become a mother, you are not just a mother to your child. You are mother to the world around you.

I have told my kids any celebration that does not force me to wear a swimsuit will be perfect. Better ideas might be here.

I hope your Mother’s Day is filled with everything you love.