A Couple Extra Dollars

Recently I have been given the opportunity to make a few extra dollars by sweeping and mopping the gym floor in the Arena here at school. It's only two nights a week and it never takes more than an hour and a half. It isn't a ton of hours, but I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity I have to add a little more to my bank account.

I go Monday and Thursday nights. On Thursdays I start at 11:00 p.m. That's late for someone like me. (I am a grandma) I am awake at 6:00 that morning, and I finally make it to bed around 1a.m that night. (After I shower/brush my teeth/read my scriptures/etc). I am then up again at 6:00 the next morning to prepare for my day and get ready for my 8a.m. class.

Although grateful... I dread my Thursday nights. I'm usually exhausted, and I'm never very excited to go and have a party mopping. Mopping a huge gym floor isn't glorious, especially when late night college students are playing basketball on the court while you're mopping. I show up, I put my headphones in, listen to general conference talks, and ignore everyone while I get to work. And I usually work up a sweat.

 It's moments like these where I have learned some of the greatest lessons in gratitude.

My mother.

My mother is an angel.

She is the strongest woman I know, and I am so incredibly grateful for her faith and example... Let me explain.

When I am analyzing the marks in the floor I have just mopped, I think of my mother. I think of the countless times I have gone to work with my mother cleaning houses and pushed a mop around someone else's floor. I think of the hours I have spent with her, bonding, and learning how to work hard while I watch her do some of the most unpleasant manual labor. I think of the times we have laughed, had lunch dates, talked about serious life issues while we both slaved away just to make a couple extra dollars. Except, for my mom.. it isn't just a couple extra dollars.

My mother doesn't mop floors and clean toilets because she enjoys it. She doesn't do it because she just gets a thrill from plugging in the vacuum. My mother does it because she has to in order to make ends meet. And although she doesn't like it, I know she is so grateful for the opportunity she has to have work and to be able to provide.

Being her own boss, she is able to attend our soccer games, wrestling tournaments, state fair, etc. She knows how important it was to us that she was there to support us. So not only was she working full-time, but she was grocery shopping, fulfilling her church callings, attending sports games, cleaning our own house, cooking our dinner, and now attending school part-time.

Like I said, my mother is an angel.

My mother works her butt off. I don't know a single person who works harder than she does.
And I am so incredibly grateful that she has done everything she can to ingrain her work ethic into me.

The few hours a year that I go to work with my mother are nothing compared to the hours and weeks that she spends working her butt off to clean another persons living room. Or to make another person's bed.

So I just wanted to say that I gained a little perspective by pushing a mop around, just to earn a couple extra dollars. 

So mom, thanks for everything. Thanks for building my testimony. Thanks for teaching me how to work hard.

P.S. thanks for birthing me too... I guess that is kinda important.

Love you mom.