What a wonderful Mother's Day! I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude at the end of such a day realizing how fortunate and blessed I am. The kids let me sleep in, then brought me breakfast in bed. I was then showered with gifts -- everything from kid-made cards and crafts to an astounding strand of pearls from my husband. We then got out the bicycles and got them all into summer-running order with tired pumped up and checking to make sure that everybody had a bike and helmet that fit. We then set out to get Cate riding a 2-wheeler.

Now, anybody who knows Cate knows that she is a bit opinionated. I prefer "opinionated" to "obstinate" which might be another word that would be apt. She gets something in her mind and good luck changing it. Just you try convincing her that the sky is blue if she's decided that the sky is violet. She does things in her own sweet time and in her own sweet way. Some day this will be a wonderful characteristic when some friend tries to convince her to experiment with things we would rather she not try. I can just picture her saying, "I don't think so."

Last year we took the training wheels off of her bike but she didn't WANT to ride her bike without training wheels. As a result, she refused to even try riding her bike all summer long. I told my girl that for Mother's Day I wanted to try to work on her 2-wheeler skills. After 5 tense minutes of making no progress and her not wanting to learn the way I was trying to teach her, the girl figured it out, pretty much on her own. Look at her go! She went from a record of 3 pedals in a row to flying down the street. We took the bikes to South High School late in the afternoon to give her a nice big empty parking lot to practice in and she is now feeling extremely confident. The first question upon waking up this morning was "can I ride my bike before school?"

I can't help but feel overwhelmingly blessed. This week is my 2-year anniversary of diagnosis with breast cancer. I am so happy to be around to share these experiences with my family. And I couldn't ask for a better family -- God knew just the husband and kids that would be the perfect fit for me.