Saturday was my birthday. I have never been one to like a lot of pomp, ceremony or dazzle on my birthdays, even as a child. I am a quiet person, by nature. I don’t like being the center of attention and am quite good at being that flower on the wall. What I like the best about birthdays, mine or my childrens, or dear ones, is getting together with them. Sharing a meal, some laughter, building history and making memories, on the small scale. This year was sweet, but also bitter. This was my very first birthday in 22.5 years where one of my blessings was not able to be with me celebrating the moving of time. He was sorely missed. He did call me three times and did wish me a Happy Birthday – but I longed to hug this sweet manchild of mine. It made me sad on my ‘special’ day. I’m sure he was feeling a bit fish-out-of-waterish too.
So what fabulous amazing loud exuberant things did we do? Nothing. Well, nothing loud or exuberant, like I said I like low-key and family. So I asked for one thing from everyone. No petty squabble, no sibling rivalry or nonsense. A day of peace and time spent at our home with each other, celebrating another year older for me. 13 made me a cake. He did a great job too. Everyone loves this cake, and we serve it at most family birthdays – but it was 13′s first time making it completely alone, no supervision from me. He also had spent some time making me this awesome animated birthday card (in Blender). He also gave me this mini-ice cream scoop I had been quietly coveting. (For scooping out perfect portions for cookie making!).
11 spent a lot of her day and weekend actually creating a beautiful masterpiece of a birthday card for me. I love it. It’s a two way birthday card, if you hold it up to a mirror you can read it perfectly, on one side. The other side is done the right way round. So coming and going I can read her heart to me. She also had bought me, several months ago, this wonderful 2nd hand food slicer and was so excited to give it to me.
20 and 18 did various acts of kindness and love for and with me throughout my day. Going to school and not yet back at work, makes it difficult for them to purchase a store bought gift. To be honest though, some of my absolute favourite gifts over the years, from my children, have been the gift of time spent with them. 20 will be starting back to his full time job on Tuesday, while also going to full time school. I know that time with him will be rare, so the time with him was such a treat. We got to spend several hours, just one-on-one on Saturday. Perfect gift. 18 repeatedly gave me hugs throughout my day and told me many times that he loved me. He even gave up his time to take his sister, 11, and her two new friends (and one of them even had two young pre-schooler cousins with her) to the park. He made sure they were all safe, and so gave me, and at least three other Mums some real peace of mind with his single act of big protective brotherliness.
I had something very special happen on Wednesday of this past week. At the age of 46 received my first ever birthday gift from my Dad and my Step-Mother. Dad lives straight across Canada from me, so sending things through the mail is both costly and not always a sure thing. You know the unpredictability of the mail system LOL. Putting that aside, like clock work, I always get a call from my Dad on my birthday. This year, I could not receive my birthday call, through no fault of my Dad’s. My house phone is dealing with some significant PMS issues and we can’t get the fool thing to work. I had been working on it for most of last week. So no call. The Lord knew that call wasn’t going to happen, even before I knew – so I received my lovely memory in the mail instead. I collect pigs, I have for years. I love collecting pigs, they are cute and make me laugh (oh and they taste delicious too 
). The picture below shows what Dad and Barb sent me. It’s perfect. I am so overwhelming touched by their hearts. This small token shows me that they care about me, they think about me, they understand me, and they know just the thing I needed to make me smile on my special day. Perfect.
Happy Belated Birthday!!