My Birthday!

My birthday was a Red Letter Day this year! It fell on a Saturday and the house was already clean (so I didn't have to supervise housecleaning day) and my middle schooler's schoolwork was completed the day before (because I really did not want to be supervising Latin on my birthday!).

In the morning, my children had designed a sign for me, gathered together to sign it, and posted it in the van where I would see it first thing on our way to Mass.

An entirely undeserved accolade, but it melted my heart nonetheless.

As my birthday always falls on the Feast of Candlemas, we took in our beeswax candles (we have bought from Lux Candle Co. for years) for a blessing.

Completely independently, all my boys had dressed up in an entirely dapper fashion!

There were no altar servers scheduled, so John offered to serve, which the priest accepted: John's first time serving a low Mass solo! This is a challenging step for an altar server and we were so proud of his attention to detail and few slip-ups.

Afterward, we grabbed bagels at Bruegger's, picked up bird seed for Heidi and Clara at Petsmart, and got the kids off to the rink for John's scheduled class (at which he is absolutely excelling!) and the other three kids joining in for Public Skate. Meanwhile, I kept the two littlest boys home to nap . . .  and I caught a cat nap myself!

Beautiful flowers from my aunt

That crew came home just in time for me and my two beautiful daughters to go to the hair salon for trims and then wander an independent book store, perusing the beautiful books. We were in bookworm heaven!

We arrived home to take-out from one of our favorite Italian restaurants so I wouldn't have to cook, nor would we have to manage six kids in a restaurant (which is not always relaxing) and opening my gorgeous hand-painted cards.

Then we loaded up for a visit to Amelie's Bakery for dessert, where I shared a petite gauteaux with a few of my other children.

It was truly such a relaxing, joy-filled day, which gave me much meditation about my blessings!