Right Here, Right Now

Anna made me a multi-media card/quilt square for my birthday.

I loved her poem--

We laugh, we cry, we make time fly.

We are best friends my mom and I.

This year, I was quite sentimental.

I especially loved that each of my kids pictured me with them, individually.

It's hard to keep individual relationships when you're parenting a basketball team.  Those personal moments are moments that I seek to create.  So, I hope they feel that I'm theirs not just ours.

Drew wanted to go on the computer and I encouraged him to write me a birthday poem first.  I love the result!  The calligraphy kills me.  

Oh mothers of young children-- just wait until you see how FUN it is to be a mother of older children.

I get this guy every day.

Too bad I didn't take a picture of the candlelit pile of Peeps Todd left on my pillow next to a card saying that for my birthday he would get me an electric fence for the dog (and a day at the spa) with our next paycheck after April 15th.  This guy kills me.  

(I don't even like Peeps, but I adore him!!)

Birthdays are SO different for me since Ben was born.  They feel so victorious.

I don't feel as selfish celebrating my birthday-- I feel grateful!! 

I'm grateful to be HIS wife

And HIS mom

And HIS mom

And HER mom

And HER mom

And HER mom

And HER mom-

And HER mom

And HIS mom.

Really-- how did I get SO lucky?

I wish you could know how grateful I am for you.  Reading a simple "Happy Birthday" on Facebook was not just a greeting to me.  I felt SO grateful.  Isn't it beautiful how you just continue to expand as you grow older?  Pieces of your heart stay connected to people you knew long ago.

It was in the Trauma ICU that I really felt the physical energy of prayer and thoughts.  I literally felt the collective power of love pulling me back to my body.  So, thank you to my virtual friends also.  

The sun is shining here today.  I just typed this blog while waiting in a dentist office.  Ben has been flirting coyly with the receptionist and is now trying to drink a sample tube of toothpaste.

Happy April!

Happy Easter Week!

Life is so very good!!