This Sunday is a day that is often marked on everyone’s calendar. It’s a day to celebrate those who brought us into this world and nourished us until we could fend for ourselves. Mother’s Day is truly a day worth celebrating each year.

It’s not just a day to bombard our moms with gifts, flowers or chocolates. It’s also a day to remember just how much our mothers have done when it comes to raising us. To me personally, it’s a day for me to show my mom that I remember everything that she has sacrificed for me.

For instance, my mother didn’t have a plethora of options when it came to child care. So once I hit school age, my mom accepted a job at TNT Primary as a custodian so my schedule (and my sister’s schedule) would match her own. There would be no need to worry about child care in the summer months because when I was out of school, she too would be out of school.

The job of a custodian is no easy task either. Unlike me, who essentially sits behind a desk most of the day to earn a paycheck, she was doing hard labor to make ends meet. While I’m sure she was tired, my mom never complained when she had to pick me up from school — or football practice in high school —, fix dinner, help me with homework and get me and my sister prepared for bed just to get up the next day and do it all over again.

Those responsibilities were just the tip of the iceberg as well. As most moms do, my mother also loved me, took care of me when I was sick, and had to put up with most of the nonsense that comes with being the mother of a teenage boy. In addition to that, my mother never missed a game during my high school football career — with the only exception being a game in the middle of Hurricane Katrina at Pigeon Forge, where the stands were essentially empty.

The funny thing is my mother probably never realized the impact and lessons she had on my life by doing these things. In her head, she was just…being a mom. She doesn’t realize that she had an influence over the way I parent my own kids. She doesn’t know that her simply showing up to every game showed me the importance of being there for my kids no matter how small the occasion.

My mother probably doesn’t realize that watching her take pride in her work, no matter the job, influenced me to do that same. And, unfortunately for her, my mother speaking her mind is something she also passed down to me. These are just a few things that come to mind when I think of my mom on Mother’s Day. To continue listing everything my mother has done and the impact she continues to have on my life would be impossible.

This Mother’s Day, just take a moment to think and realize just how important and meaningful your mom is to your life.