Birthday!

Well, I am officially older today than I have been in a year. To celebrate, we had a family night out on Saturday at Shakespeare's pizza in Columbia. It is just the kind of place that I love; authentic home made food, very casual atmosphere and a welcoming place for small children. On Sunday we had a cooking day. Jessica and I spent the day cooking and freezing foods to have ready made meals for busy evenings. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. We probably prepared 10 meals and 2 desserts in one afternoon. So, today for my birthday, I woke up to the cutest card from Randy. He got me a musical Snoopy card that played the music theme to all the Peanuts shows. Anything having to do with Peanuts is very nostalgic for me. My Mom (whose Birthday I share) loved the Peanuts characters, especially Snoopy. She always got us Peanuts cards for our birthdays. This card was extra special, and Randy wrote a sweet note (I won't get specific on what it said, but it reminded me of a famous Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem. . . come grow old with me. . . .) I think after 31 years of marriage, he has finally figured out how easy it is to please me. The simpler, the better! I heard from all of my loved ones today and even had the YMCA computer sing me Happy Birthday as I scanned my card in! Flowers were delivered for me from my Grand kids. . . another nice surprise! All in all, it has been a very good day. Reflecting on my life, I become acutely aware of how blessed I am to have such a loving and caring family. Not everyone shares my good fortune in terms of family. Not one day goes by that I don't give thanks for all the blessings in my life.