Mother Love

So I turned twenty-seven yesterday.

Unbelievable! Exciting! Unbelievable!

I’m still young enough that I love birthdays, and honestly, I hope I always love them. Perhaps it easy to say it on this side of thirty or forty years old…but age is just a number, and every year is another accomplishment. Every new and older age is full of new possibilities and good things to come! So far I feel like life truly does get better as I get older, so the next fifty years look great to me. Ben and I often talk and laugh about what it will be like to be sixty or seventy or eighty years old…with grand babies and false teeth and wrinkles and experiences and hopefully a ton more wisdom than we have now…we just think it sounds like a grand time of life!

Ben took me out for a birthday date on Tuesday night to my favorite crepe restaurant, and spoiled me with presents and cards! He’s such a romantic! We were talking about the past year during our evening, and he asked me what I felt was the best thing about the past year and what I’ve felt that I’ve learned. I thought about it for a second and realized that I think one of the best things that I’ve learned/am learning is to accept myself as I am and to fully lean into my identity in Christ. One of my biggest weaknesses is to allow external factors and accomplishments to determine my worth and make me feel confident. But in this twenty-sixth year, I feel the Lord changing something in me and taking me deeper in my true identity as a woman hidden in Him. And I believe that next year at this same time I will be able to see how He’s done that even more!

I’ve been so inspired by a few of my friends (her and her) who have made these super neat lists of goals to accomplish before their next birthdays, with the number of goals correlating to her current age (20 before 21, etc.). I think it’s such a splendid idea, but in all reality I don’t know if I could quite conjure up twenty seven goals for the next year! I guess that’s one problem with getting older, hehe.

But I did come up with a few goals for the next 365 days of my life::

– have a baby (haha!)
– make fresh pasta
– send a handwritten card to two people each month
– learn to knit
– try a new cuisine
– learn to make bread
– volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter
– read a Proverbs every day
– take a culinary class
– make homemade root beer
– walk/run a 5k with Ben + baby

It’s a pretty simple and short list, but this is a big year for us with a lot of changes so I figure I better not overwhelm myself too much! We’ll see how much of this list gets accomplished…

What about you: do you set goals for your year? Do you like having a birthday?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

It’s a fresh, new week full of possibilities, you guys!

It was another super gorgeous weekend in the Finger Lakes and we took full advantage of it with open windows all day and mowing the lawn (a fresh cut lawn is one of the best smells, right?!?) and sitting outside in the sun. I actually got tan lines and a mild burn from being in the sun for about thirty minutes, which goes to show how un-used to sunshine my skin is! It felt so nice to soak up the sun rays for a while. This week is supposed to be a little cooler and less sunshiney, but I’m not complaining because it’s still so lovely to have spring time here and seeing things begin to grow. I’m actually itching to get to a greenhouse sometime soon and get some flowers and herbs to put in some pots on the deck. I don’t know how much of a garden I’ll get around to this year, since even without having a newborn to care for, gardening is pretty low on my priority list…but I would like to eventually get in a few tomato plants at least. We’ll see if it happens…

So obviously we were really hoping we’d have our little one with us by now, but apparently he or she is feeling pretty cozy and happy in there. We took off for Ithaca on Saturday afternoon for a vigorous hike at a state park, but so far the only results from that outing was just having a really fun time with my husband, haha. It was super cool to be out in the woods and breathing in the spring air…it just feels invigorating! The hike was only about two miles back in to the waterfall we were going to see, but by the time we were heading back to the car, I was feeling a pretty wiped out…I guess carrying an extra human being with you does that to you! Plus not being able to use the bathroom for longer than thirty minutes at a time is always a little scary at this point, hehe. I literally took extra tissues with me in case I couldn’t make it through the entire hike, because the other day I was out on a walk and I literally didn’t think I would make it back to the house in time before things forcibly made their exit (sorry for the tmi…but it’s real issues y’all!). But we made it back and I immediately rushed to the ladies room, hehe.

Sunday was full of rest and grilling + friends over for lunch and, in all honesty, a big emotional melt down for this past-due-date mama. I’m generally doing so fine with waiting for this baby to come, and I didn’t realize that I was so attached to a due date since I know those are mostly just guesses…babies come when they come and your body knows when it’s ready! I know all that, but I also know that I AM SO READY TO MEET THIS LITTLE PERSON. And sometimes I feel so weary and drained and disappointed…it’s silly, I know…but not everything makes sense when you’re pregnant. So I had a good cry for a while and prayed with my husband and refocused my perspective. And I felt so much better. It’s so easy to focus on the one thing you want that you don’t have (yet!), and lose sight of all the rest of the overwhelming goodness and blessing of God.

The beautiful truth is…this baby does have to come out sometime. No one has ever been pregnant forever, hehe!

Here are five things:
– this skirt!
– this looks amazing
– making this (with honey!)
– this cute thing
– listening to this

Have a super week, y’all!

What about you: what was the BEST thing about your weekend?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!