It's My Birthday!

I was going to post a quick little thank-you and a birthday update on Facebook but I ran out of room ... by about 1,001 letters ;)

So here it is here. Birthdays don't have to be fanfare and organized festivity or a ton of gifts and recognition.

Of course, it would have served me well to hear that little mantra for the last 20 years or so ;)

Birthdays have to be about gratitude. For me, I have found the best birthdays have had a perfect formula of almost zero expectation coupled with a heaping dose of gratitude.

Enter, my birthday #38 (originally posted on facebook):

I had a wonderfully normal day with an average amount of poop diapers, the nappers took relatively good naps, the dog threw up but NOBODY crawled through it, heard a rousing rendition of "Blessed Be the Name" from a very enthusiastic 7-year old, and an equally rousing rendition of "Go Go Go Joseph" from a nearly bald but still cute 2-year old, was given a beautiful homemade card from my beauties where they each thanked me for driving them somewhere (I guess I have mentioned that chore a bit much lately, huh?), and then taken to dinner by my handsome and chivalrous husband (oh, yes my friends ... A DATE!) to Anatolia Grill in Chester (Turkish & Mediterranean) a YUMMY little place where we ate a weeks portion of meat, then he took me to Kohl's where I perused the *jury* section for no less than 47 hours while he waited patiently on the papaw bench, then (does this birthday ever end???) the heaven's opened up and we went to Target with 45 MINUTES TO SPARE! I am telling you I couldn't write this one to suit me any better unless there were several loads up laundry folded and put away while I was gone ... yes! The sweetheart sisters put the younger set to bed AND did laundry and cleaned up the house!

It was a happy day indeed.

I am 38 years old. 19 years ago my mother had her very last birthday ... she turned 37. It is not lost on me ... that each day, including birthdays are truly a gift.