It's Father's Day this weekend, and as a mom, this means I've been focused on my boys' father. What to get my husband, how to celebrate the day, etc. I was so consumed with this, that I realized last night I had forgotten to buy a card for my own father! GASP! And since he lives in Florida and I live in Massachusetts, there is no way a card is getting to him by tomorrow. This makes me feel simply terrible. Then it occurred to me that I could make him a custom card. One that says exactly how I feel. And here it is:

Front: Happy Father's Day, Dad!
Inside: Now that I'm a mother, I have a new respect for all you have done through the years. Being the only man in the house could not have been easy. Vacations for six and tables for six could not have been cheap. I know now why you worked so much overtime. Thank you for teaching me the value of hard work and that the nice things in life don't come easy. I'm so glad you did not hold it against me when I asked you to never again pick me up from CCD class in your rambling pick-up truck. I'll always remember the time you counseled me on the basics of business. You said: "If you want people to buy lemonade from your stand, Erin, you'll have to move it to the main road where people can see it!"

Thank you for encouraging me to learn to play a musical instrument and telling me to keep at it when I could not make a single sound on my flute. And thanks for buying me a brand new one of my very own when I made Wind Ensemble in high school. I'll always remember you coming to my softball games when I did nothing more than warm the bench. And buying ice cream when our team record was 0-13. Eating cream cheese and jelly sandwiches on white bread, learning how to hook a worm and fish, catching fireflies and trapping squirrels using a cardboard box, two sticks and a long piece of string are some of my fondest childhood memories. Thanks for reminding me not so subtly at my eight-year-old birthday party that as the birthday girl it was my role to be happy when my friends won prizes and not to act out because I didn't get the most clothespins in the milk bottle.

Without you, Dad, who would have taught me how to ride a bike, drive a car, or put up wall paper? Thanks for letting me wait in line at 5am for Bon Jovi concert tickets and while I didn't understand then, I can see why you grounded me and forbid me to go to the concert after finding a Sun Country Wine Cooler cap in my car. (I really was the designated driver but you had a point to prove. Or maybe Mom did, I can't remember, but it worked).

Thanks for sending me away to college, even though you couldn't really afford it, and for walking me down the aisle on my wedding day. You're a terrific Dad and a wonderful Grandfather who knows the value of a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's and ice cream with the grandkids.

Have a wonderful, relaxing Father's Day. When you come to visit next, dinner is on me.