I Survived the First Day of My 30s

Birthdays are usually lots of fun, but for the last several months the big 3-0 started to approach too quickly for me.  Something about that number scares me.  Maybe I can't let go of the constant transitions that the 20s bring.  Maybe I think that I'll suddenly be too old to be kinda cool and fun.  Perhaps it's that I'm kinda vain and I'm worried about seeing any new tiny lines on my face.  I think most of the fear comes from remembering a birthday party that I attended as a child for a family friend who turned 30.  I don't remember much about the party, but I do remember seeing lots and lots of black and over-the-hill signs.  There was doom in turning 30.

I didn't want any big to-dos for my birthday yesterday.  All I really wanted was to enjoy a nice quiet day with my three favorite people - Joel, Grace and Autumn.  I told Joel that all I wanted was to go to church as a family, go out to one of my favorite restaurants for lunch and then just have a relaxing day together.  Well, Autumn was up throughout the night with some terrible chest cold - coughing, sneezing, an abundance of mucus and lots of crying.  Grace was up, too, because she thought she was missing out on some middle-of-the-night party.  When the girls were in bed (finally), I was up because my stomach was bothering me.  So, come 7 o'clock the next morning, we weren't going to church and my day simply wasn't going to go as planned.

Instead, we all slept in and enjoyed the morning in our pj's.  We cuddled, played and watched movies together.  And later yesterday afternoon, we managed to all get dressed and pulled together so that we could go out for dinner.  Dinner was lovely.  The kids were amazingly well-behaved and we had so much fun talking and enjoying the most wonderful food.  To top it off, I got my tiramisu for dessert.

We came home and the girls went to bed without much fuss and then Joel and I curled up on the couch together and watched Eclipse.  He even managed to watch most of the movie without making comments about the storyline or the fact that I know as much Twilight trivia as he does Star Wars....

So, my first day as 30 was not terrible, as I had imagined.  I keep hearing that it's the 30s when you really find your groove in life and start to feel settled.  I'm praying for that and can't wait to see what God has in store for me.  I also hear that 50 is the new 40 and perhaps 30 can be the new 20.  Whichever it is, I'm going to celebrate 29 forever!

Wednesday Weigh-In

Happy Wednesday!  This morning was madness in our house - trying to get everyone up, fed, dressed and out the door.  I even managed a shower, so that's a plus!  Somehow in the craziness of this morning, I managed to pull the scale out and was thrilled with what I saw - I lost 2 pounds this week!  As of today, I'm down 21 since this deployment started and I have four more to meet my goal of 25. 

After I dropped Grace off at school I went to the grocery store with Autumn and this crazy, kinda scary looking guy kept coming up to me, wanting to see the baby.  I don't understand why strangers think they can get all in your baby's face and why they think they can touch them.  So, I kept moving the cart away from this guy and putting myself between him and Autumn.  I struggle with trying to be gracious and making sure that my kids are safe.  By the time we were leaving the store I was feeling frustrated and I just wanted to get home and away from Mr. Crazy.  A store employee stopped me before I could get to the door and I almost snapped at her, but then she pulled out a bouquet of flowers and asked if I would like them.  Honestly, I started to tear-up.  That's exactly what I needed, and so far it's been the highlight of my day.

Take a moment today in the midst of your to-dos, trying to handle your family responsibilities and crazy people around you and look for ways to bless others!