Snapshots and Memories from My Birthday

Dear friends,

I was born on my dad's birthday 48 years ago today,

so that makes it my birthday, too!

My husband woke me this morning and told to come outside

and see my birthday rainbow.

Beautiful! 
 One of my daughters was already out there
with my iPod camera, snapping away.

I talked to my dad today, and when he looked out in his yard today,

he saw two deer on their hind legs, battling with their front hoofs.   

Amazing!

After our rainbow adventure, my husband fixed me

a scrumptious breakfast of eggs,
spicy Italian sausage, and cinnamon and orange rolls.  Yum!

He also gave me a dozen red roses with a very sweet note.

The roses may wilt in a week or so,

but the note I will keep forever!

  

My littlest daughter told me when I got up that

she was loaning me her Mickey Mouse for the day.

The real Mickey Mouse at Disney World autographed

the stuffed one on the bottom of his foot.

The kids also decorated our white board for me.

Impressive.

When I checked my e-mail on my iPod,

I was delighted to see dozens of

birthday greetings on my Facebook wall.

 After seeing her message,

I checked out my friend Tracy Klicka's blog

and find a lovely song.

Sara Groves is my favorite singer,

but I've never heard this one, "The Hiding Place." 

Tracy has set it to pictures from Scotland,

where I spent seven weeks as a teenager.

Lovely treat for the eyes and ears! 

You can find it here: My Life, This Song.

Tracy is the widow of Chris Klicka,

who was a well known attorney and speaker 

in the home schooling movement,

and the song she chose is a wonderful one for comforting

those who are grieving or who are in difficult places.

I downloaded it to my iPod as a birthday present to myself! 

(Big spender: 99 cents!)

You are my hiding place

You fill my broken heart with songs

Songs of deliverance

You sing of how the weak are strong

~*~*~

When I picked up my grandson this afternoon,

he had a brand new car seat waiting to go.

It was still in the box, but no problem! 

After 10 kids, I have plenty of experience getting these set up.

This one just needed its shoulder straps moved up a a few slots.

It looks like he approves!

Home school PE classes started at the YMCA today.

I took the time to work out on the weight machines

since the elipticals were all occupied by the kids

and the treadmills are too hard on my feet. 

It's been a really long time since I've lifted weights
-- and I feel it!

While working out, I listened to my "Cheerful Songs" playlist --

everything from James Taylor's "Shower the People You Love with Love"

to "Dueling Guitars" and "La Bamba" from the August Rush soundtrack

to "All Right Here" by Sara Groves to "Stained Glass" by Keith Green. 

By far the most fitting tune of the day is "Tick Tock" by Chris Rice:  

They say life is but a vapor

Just a blip on a radar screen

Not the dates on your tombstone

But the dash in between

and

Tick-tock, the past is locked

The future’s far away

You can’t go back, you can’t hurry it up

You gotta learn to live today

Tick-tock, it’s now o’clock

The little hand is ours

The second hand sweeps us around

And the Big Hand has the power

and

Celebrate a season
Now another year’s gone
Well there goes a decade, a century, millenium
And here comes eternity, eternity, eternity
Here comes eternity, eternity
What’s up with eternity?

Indeed. Good words to think about on a birthday or any day! "Not the dates on your tombstone, but the dash in between."  And my life is a dash, always.  We even forget to eat lunch before we left for the YMCA, so I picked up a a bag of 59 cent hamburgers from McDonalds for my kids (special price on Monday and Wednesday at certain stores). 

My son-in-law sent along a dish of mandarin oranges for my grandson whose dash will probably be a lot longer since they eat so healthy!

We had a delightful evening with most of the kids, as well as my 22 year old daughter's fiance.  (The wedding is in less than six weeks, so they were going to get her ring sized and ordered after my party!)  The girls all brought food -- rotisserie chicken, potato salad, rolls and green salad.

My neighbor had given us a beautiful chocolate cake earlier in the week that we decided to save for my birthday.   We put on some colorful corkscrew candles but couldn't find any matches, so I pretended to blow out the candles.  We served the cake with chocolate ice cream, of course.

One of my daughters gave me almost a pound of premium Belgian dark chocolate with almonds.  Are you picking up on the chocolate theme here?  Also a new journal, a Psalms reflection journal, pumpkin spice soap, a Brightlight Bookstore gift card, a basket, a tote bag, socks, headbands, a sleeve for my laptop, sweet notes -- am I forgetting anything?  Very thoughtful gifts from very thoughtful children!

 

As you can see, I had a lovely birthday and I'm so thankful to God for my family and friends who made it that way!


Blessings,

Virginia Knowles

www.VirginiaKnowles.blogspot.com

 Join the fun at Food on Fridays at www.AnnKroeker.com