So, I failed to mention that on Mother’s Day, my children once again remembered me.

And I didn’t even have to tell them what day of the year Mother’s Day fell on.

Somehow they just knew.

For that, I am thankful.

For them, I am thankful.

My oldest son, Dylan, shipped me a box of Starbucks coffee, just as he does on my birthday and for other occasions.

He knows it is my favorite and something I can’t always afford to buy myself.

I appreciate his thoughtfulness.

He truly is a special man.

My second child, Caleb, who is the father of my grandson, little Layne, gave me flowers.

He knows that I love white flowers of any kind.

I appreciate his kindness.

He truly is a special man.

My youngest son, the one in the Air Force, Noah, sent me a little bit of money through a cash app.

He said to use it to buy myself dinner or whatever I wanted.

He understands I am always in need of money.

I appreciate his generosity.

He truly is a special man.

You know, it is hard for me to think of my children as men. Even though they are.

The youngest is what now … 27? 28?

Math has never been my strong suit.

I suppose I could figure it out if need be.

But for now, I will just say that it is hard for me to call them men when they will always be — at least to me — my little boys.

I suppose that is the way it will be with my grandson.

He will be 3 in December, and I still call him the baby.

When you get to be more than 50 years old, everyone seems to be a lot younger than they actually are.

I can remember years ago when they all still lived at home and it was going to be Mother’s Day in a few weeks.

They would always ask me what I wanted.

My reply would always be “nothing.” I know these were teenage boys and they didn’t have a job or income or child support to purchase me anything.

So “nothing” was always my response.

Sometimes I would get a two-liter of pop.

More often, I would get some sort of chocolate.

But this particular year, I decided to let them know what I really wanted for Mother’s Day.

I requested the games Chutes and Ladders and Candyland.

Yes, I know that sounds quite silly … me asking three teenage boys for two games that were created for children between the ages of, say, 3 and 6.

But it was what I had wanted. And again, they did not let me down.

There was a stipulation, however.

When I asked for the board games that only a child would play, I informed my sons I wanted them to sit down with me and play them.

You see, it wasn’t very often I got to spend a lot of time playing with them when they were little.

In between working sometimes up to five jobs, going to school, cleaning the house, cooking, etc., we played a few different video games here and there, watched some cartoons on television, or each picked up an instrument and played Rock Band or Guitar Hero with one another.

But that was about it.

We just simply ran out of time.

There is never enough time when your children are small, is there?

When we are in the moment, it can feel like eternity.

When we are older, it seems it all went by in a matter of blinks.

There were not enough blinks.

So please, always, always enjoy and treasure your children when they are little.

Cherish their questions and conversations.

Let them accidentally color on the furniture or walls and spill stuff on the carpet.

Because one day it won’t even matter that it happened.

Focus on what is important.

And that would be time. We never have enough time.

When I look back on that Mother’s Day, I would say it was about 2013 or 2014, I had decided that I wanted to play children’s’ board games with my children.

Even though they were teenage children.

And you know what?

They did.

We set the up board games on the coffee table in the living room.

We each took turns spinning the wheel or choosing a card, depending on what game we were playing.

I had forgotten the rules since it had been decades since I’d played.

But apparently, Noah knew.

He had removed the plastic covering and opened the boxes prior to giving them to me.

He explained the rules to his brothers and me as we went along. And that was fine. It save us from each reading them.

We are all competitors.

And this game of Candyland was no exception.

Following Noah’s win, I came to find he did, indeed, read all the instructions beforehand.

But he played the game according to his own made-up rules so he could win.

Needless to say, Noah was not in charge of reading the box lids anymore.

Sure, there was some swearing involved in those couple of hours.

And most of us were smoking cigarettes while we played.

But you know what? That’s OK.

Because the quality time I had with my children on that Mother’s Day is one that I will never forget.

And although I have to accept that today’s gifts will either arrive through the mail, by Amazon delivery or through a money app … I love it that they are thinking of me. Still.

No matter how far away life takes them.

(Stenger is the community editor for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times newspapers. She can be contacted at jstenger@heraldstaronline.com.)