Birthdays are a big deal at our house. When the kids still lived at home, we’d start the day with some kind of pastry with a candle in it and drag them out of bed to eat it among the balloons and streamers adorning the breakfast table. There might be a small teaser gift for what was to come later and always a round of “Happy Birthday” croaked out in our morning voices. They’d have a card and special snacks in their lunchbox or we’d go to lunch at their restaurant of choice if it wasn’t a school day. There were parties with friends, maybe cupcakes at school, cake with grandparents, and some special activity they weren’t treated to very often. Basically, from sun up to midnight, we had a full-on celebration of the birthday person’s big day and, most of the time, it would spill over into the next day in order to fit in all the fanfare and fuss. Yeah, birthdays were/are a big deal here. 

We celebrated our August birthdays, a couple of weekends ago. Blair, John Samuel, and Anna Kathryn, Carson’s girlfriend, all have birthdays in this, the hottest month of the year. Yes, I still make a big deal out of their birthdays and I don’t mean grown-up, more sophisticated celebrations for the full-grown people that they are. No, birthdays still call for paper streamers and balloons and hats and restaurants of choice. I’m a firm believer in plates that say Happy Birthday, a lot of helium inflation, and everyone seeing their name written in icing once a year. When they come home for their birthday celebrations, we’re always stocked with their favorite everything from coffee to ice cream. Birthdays should make you feel like a kid even if you’re far from being one. Even after having celebrated her earlier, I drove to spend the day with Blair on her actual birthday, this week. She had the day off and a home decorating project she wanted to work on, so I couldn’t resist spending her birthday afternoon doing some of her favorite things for old time’s sake. It was a fun day with my girl. 

I’m not sure why I’ve always been so determined to make birthdays a memorable day. I wouldn’t say my kids were spoiled on very many days out of the year, but birthdays were always one of the exceptions. They mark the very beginning of God’s plan for each of us. The Giver of life customized our personalities, selected our strengths, trusted us with specific gifts, allowed certain weaknesses, and wrapped them all in a body made with His creative hands that would be born on the day of His choosing. Our birthdays. He gave each of us everything we’d need to accomplish His purpose for our lives and then gave us the keys of free will. We could take what He’d given us and the days He’d measured out for us and go in any direction we’d choose from there. Birthdays are good days to evaluate ourselves and what we’re doing with what we’ve been given and they’re really great days to celebrate the beauty of God’s creativity and how He’s made each person inimitable. Now, that’s something worth celebrating! And in a big way! So, “Happy Birthday to you”…..and you…..and you. 

I’d like to sign off by pointing out how much restraint it has taken on my part to make no mention of the truly horrendous, excruciating, agonizing, torturous heat and humidity that have fallen over us. I’m trying to be a big person about it and not whine. I know you, summer people, are in your element and you’re having your turn. You and I are not the same. And your turn seems way longer than my turn. I’m struggling over here to find the energy to do much of anything (as you may have noticed) and I really think my brain has powered down. I am not ok. Send a cold front. A breeze. A cloud. Anything. 

Thanks, 

JONI