Why I'm Having A Whole Birthday Month

So Friday was my birthday. While I loved getting Facebook messages from my friends and blog comments from you, the rest of my day was fairly awful. Sam stayed home from school with a stomachache, I had a headache and about an hour of sharp, shooting stomach pains, and I found out I didn't get the job I had interviewed for earlier in the week. Happy Birthday to me.

When I was little, my mom (and maybe my dad?) always did a good job of making my birthday a special day. There was a party, there were presents, and I got to choose whatever I wanted for supper. People sang "Happy Birthday" to me in school, and I generally went to bed feeling sad to wake up on May 3 and have my birthday be over. This year I would have loved to just sleep through the entire day. It probably would have gone a lot better.

Some things about being an adult kind of suck and I'm slowly learning that celebrating birthdays can be one of those things. I know that this year, my birthday coincided with us just having returned from a major trip and Dave having just gotten full use of his right arm back. Thus, things like planning a party or Dave cooking a special dinner were not at the top of our priority lists. By the time they were, it was a little too late. And, as you all might have guessed, a good way to celebrate would have been to go and explore some gardens but our week of rainy weather interfered with that idea.

And that's the thing about birthdays as an adult -- the world doesn't put its life on hold, and it's up to us to make them special. It's also up to us to be an adult (and not binge on Chocolate Caramel Cup ice cream) when things may not go as planned. (I'm still working on those ones, by the way!)

As I was crying on the phone with one of my friends (who later dropped off some cheerful yellow tulips as a birthday gift) on Friday, she commented that maybe I should just make May my "whole birthday month" mentioning I could be celebrated all month long, and not just on one specific day. This was especially generous of her to suggest since her birthday is coming up at the end of May so technically it's her birthday month too:) And so, even though Friday (my actual birthday) was a hard day, I have the whole rest of this month to look forward too. Dave has even started planning a party for May 31.

So if you feel like you're reading a lot about celebrating my birthday this month, well, you are.

And just to let you know, if you read Dave's birthday post on Friday, you will remember that he wished  many things for me this year. Well, I experienced the fulfillment of four of those wishes yesterday.

Not only was it a great day to hang laundry outside, but since it was a beautiful Spring day,  I also enjoyed indoctrinating introducing Rachel to the joy of folding laundry outside. Of course, she kept folding up socks in her pajama pants as "a present for you" but you have to start somewhere.

Then I spent some time with my flowers. I replanted the pansies the squirrels had dug up and then (liberally) sprinkled them with cayenne pepper in hopes of keeping the squirrels away. Then I noticed that at least one of the bulbs I planted in our boulevard last fall had sprouted and bloomed. Yay! I really did plant about nine bulbs in there so I don't know what happened to the other eight.

Then after seeing a few Instagram posts about Cinco De Mayo, I decided to introduce a new family tradition and throw an impromptu Cinco De Mayo celebration. I used the tablecloth my parents brought us back from Mexico, made a quesadilla bake from my blog friend Kelly, and pulled out the most Mexican looking Fiestaware I had. Oh and I made sure Dave picked up some festive drinks -- Cranberry Lime cooler for me and Corona for him.

For dessert I was just going to make lime sherbert floats (because limes remind me of Mexico for some reason), but all I could find (at the one store I had time to go to) was Rainbow Sherbert so our floats were about as colourful as our dishes! And yes, we used napkins from Valentine's Day and cups from St Patrick's Day.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that on Sunday I went and, thanks to my parents and Dave's parents, added significantly to my Fiestaware collection. I even got some Fiestaware napkins!

So let the birthday month continue. I have a feeling it's going to get better from here :)