Frumpy Middle-Aged Mom: My most memorable Mother's Day

It's been nearly seven years now since those two scamps, Cheetah Boy and Curly Girl, became my legal children in a courthouse ceremony on June 2, 2003.

It's easy for me to remember exactly, because my friend made me a little cross-stitch sampler with the adoption date embroidered on it.

Really, it should be imprinted on my brain like a burning brand, because it changed my life so radically in so many ways.

The kids had actually moved in with me the previous August, and we all had an adjustment period to get used to each other.

They had to get used to a new town and a new mom. I had to get used to being an Instant Mom, which was quite a task considering I didn't even know the basics — such as that you never let kids drink milk on the carpet, and if you let go of their hands in traffic, they will run in front of the first oncoming car.

When my first Mother's Day rolled around, it didn't even register to me that This Means You.

After all, I'd made it through 46 years without ever getting a Mother's Day card. I kind of forgot all about it, except for the obligatory gift for my own mom.

Then, on that big Sunday in May, the kids surprised me with cards they had made in preschool and kindergarten. The cute kind, with construction paper and crayons and cutouts. I still have them, tucked away after dutifully tearing up when I read them.

They also made me quite possibly the world's worst breakfast, turning the kitchen into a FEMA disaster area in the process.

But, of course, if you're a mom, you know that while you're surveying the damage with a sinking heart, you're also touched at the sentiment.

All in all, being a mom is great. Mother's Day is nice, but to paraphrase what my parents used to tell me when I complained there was no kids day, "Every day is still Mothers Day" to me.

Marla Jo Fisher was a workaholic before she adopted two foster kids several years ago. Now she juggles work and single parenting, while being exhorted from everywhere to be thinner, smarter, sexier, healthier, more frugal, a better mom, better dressed and a tidier housekeeper. Contact her at mfisherocregister.com. Read her blog at themomblog.freedomblogging.com/category/frumpy-middleaged-mom-ma rla-jo-fisher/. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.