Today I am 40

// 3.13.09 // 17 Comments » // My Daughter, My Son, Parenting, Thriving

It’s my 40th birthday (as if I haven’t talked enough about that on this blog) and I feel fantastic.

Taking a look over my 40 years of life, I feel so amazingly lucky. I grew up in a good family, never wanted for anything, and never had anything horribly tragic happen. I married a wonderful man and we live happily in a beautiful home with our two awesome children. I’ve never been seriously injured or ill. Except for bouts of depression (that are well-managed with medication, exercise and “me time”), I have a fairy tale life. I am happy.

Like many mothers, I suffer from a good amount of mommy guilt. Am I doing right by my children? Am I raising them to be happy, considerate, confident, strong and self-reliant? For today – and taking it one day at a time – I am going to banish the guilt. My kids are happy, healthy and really smart. I’m sure I’m not doing everything perfectly, but what parent is? My kids are living this fairy tale right along with me and I need to cut myself a break.

This morning, my son presented me with a hand-written birthday card. This is what it said:

Happy Birthday Mom. You can do anything u want today so I will help with the little devil (this means my daughter, heh).

Mom’s List of Things To Do
Toontown
Shred workout
computer
indiana jones if u want to
sleeping when you want
and whatever else you might want

So Happy Birthday Mom and have a great day cause it will only come once a year

Love, Logan

I just love this. It shows that he totally gets me: His list of things for me to do includes video games, time on my computer, working out and sleeping. And that’s just about a perfect day for me.

I’m Still Smiling

// 2.18.09 // 5 Comments » // Thriving

Monday was going to be a great day. I was getting together with some friends to scrapbook for the day. But then this happened:

Video courtesy of Monica @ Paper Bridges.

And suddenly my day went from great to unforgettable.

I’ve never had a surprise party before and I’m going to be 40 in a couple weeks. I dropped a few hints to my friends and my husband, but didn’t expect much. Frankly, my husband is just not detail-oriented enough to plan an entire surprise party. I thought my friends might plan a surprise girls night out or something, because I was practically begging for some sort of celebration.

But this party? If I could explain to you the full extent of the planning, the preparation, and the elaborate scheming, you would agree with me when I say that I have the best friends and family. For the past two days I have been smiling and giggling to myself as I put together all the pieces of this delightful deception.

There were about 50 of my friends and family. I was even a little scared when they all yelled “SURPRISE!”

There was Italian food (my favorite!). There was wine. And there were desserts! – pumpkin cheesecake (another favorite), Jill’s famous brownies (sinful!) and, of course, birthday cake.

There were personalized M&M’s, which made me teary-eyed.

There was even a video clip of my friend Terry dressed in spandex, wearing a David Lee Roth mask and doing roundhouse kicks to “Jump!” I’m not allowed to post that footage publicly, but I will tell you that as 40th birthday presents go, that ranks right up there for me.

Thank you to all who made the day amazingly fantastic. And a special thanks to my husband, the Leonards and the Reales, who made it all happen. I love you guys!

I’m Back and Paying It Forward

// 1.23.09 // 16 Comments » // My Daughter, Thriving

So I haven’t blogged for over a month. I’m back, but with no promises. As usual, I have lots of ideas. Lots of plans. But there’s no guarantee any of that will actually translate into more frequent writing.

We had a wonderful holiday season in the PHAT household. Then we all got sick. There’s some nasty cold / fever / coughing / hacking up a lung thing going around. Half our homeschool co-op was out sick today. And I read that there is an outbreak of whooping cough in the local schools. Yikes.

My daughter got hit especially hard. She could hardly breathe. This is, in fact, the third time this year that she’s had a cold turn into a very bad coughing /wheezing / can’t breathe event. So we’re getting her tested for asthma as soon as she’s fully recovered from this current illness.

Other than that, things are going very well for us all. I feel very fortunate to be able to continue to live my life comfortably in this economy. And I’m very thankful for the good friends I’ve made over the past couple years and the people that make my days happier – online and off.

And here’s where “paying it forward” comes in. Last month I was sent a yummy New Hampshire Maple Candy from Ashlie at MommyCosm as part of the Pay It Forward Blog Game. I don’t know where the idea originated, but I can post as much as Ashlie found out:

I won from Heather at CMGD, she won from River Poet at Poetic License, who won from Daryl at Out & About in NYC. He won from Flea, who won from Peach, who won from Adventures in JujuBoo who won from Ronda’s Rants, who won at Zander and Me, who won it from Mamahut’s House… and then, phew, I gave up.

Here are the rules:
The exchange focuses on doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and pay it forward. I am going to send something fun, cute, & nice to three blog owners who post a comment on this entry. In turn, those three will post this information and pick three people they want to send something to and so on. Unfortunately, due to postage costs, I can only pay it forward within the United States. If you are interested in participating, be one of the three randomly chosen blog owners to leave a comment! The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found. Just a gift that will make the person smile. There are no cost restraints, but don’t go crazy! You have to promise that you will then post about this on your blog, link to me, and then send something to three people who sign up to play along through your blog.

I’m ready to Pay It Forward to three people. Leave a comment if you want to play.

Congrats to the winners: Angela, Robert, and Sonyia.