Happy Birthday to Me

I love birthdays. I love my birthday. I love a day that is all about me, and how everyone is so thankful I was born. My friends and family call me, text me, Facebook me to insist  that I have a blissful day. I love a day to pause and reflect on how I'm growing and changing each year.

There's a lot of pressure to bemoan birthdays, especially as women in our society. To call this the "second anniversary of my 29th birthday," or something like that. But actually, I don't mind being 31. I like it, actually. I've had a lot of times in my life when I struggled immensely, felt unworthy of anything good, felt like I didn't belong, or felt like I was just waiting to get to another place in my life. But this time in my life? It's really wonderful. Truly. You couldn't pay me to be 21 again.

Here's my thinking: this is as young as I'll ever be. I can look at myself in a big, magnifying mirror and point out how this or that doesn't look like it used to. Or I can look in the mirror and see how strong my body is, that it has grown and nourished two healthy boys. Admire how beautiful the smiles lines are around my eyes, because it means that I've been smiling for 31 years. I can hope that I live to see my black hair turn white, and my pale skin turn to crepe, because that will mean that I have more time to wake up next to my husband and children. These are the choices we have to make.

I love being 31. I love being alive. I love being Eric's wife and the boys' mother. I love being my parents' daughter and my brother's sister.

So hello, year number 31. Welcome. Sit and have a cup of tea...

Gratitude: Imagination

Today, I am thankful for Ellis' wild imagination. We spend countless hours telling stories, reading books, and pretending. Honestly, sometimes the constant chatter gets old, but I know that someday I will look back and wish that he'd tell me a fantastical story about Batman coming to a birthday party at our house.

In these photos, he's using random toy parts to pretend that he's drumming and singing into a microphone. He's singing "Barbara Ann," in case you're curious.

Gratitude: Enthusiasm

Today, I am thankful for childlike enthusiasm--the kind that drives my children to run to the window when they hear a garbage truck nearby. We adults could learn a thing or two from our children about how to enjoy the little pleasures in life.

Spirit of Gratitude

For the month of November, I am getting into the spirit of gratitude in preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of the month. I have many things to be grateful for, and I find that it's hard to feel down or complain when I'm grateful. So here goes:

Today, I am grateful for boy play, which often includes digging, dumping, messiness, banging, clanging, climbing, running, and jumping. I'm thankful for the way it expends energy and teaches them all sorts of things, like spacial relations, physics, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and cause-and-effect. Most importantly, it's fun!