A birthday

I had a birthday earlier in the week.  I'm always glad to celebrate a birthday, because I have a 5 year old, no one wants to be 21 anymore when they have a 5 year old. Not to mention I'm not scared to get old, almost everyone (who is not a child) I know is older than me and they seem fine.  I love being married to Brent, and slowly but surely we make it farther along in our education, his career, and in affluency.

 It was a great birthday because my youngest was old enough to be jealous it wasn't hers.  I love when kids hit that magic age.  The other fun thing is my oldest is old enough to plan what he wants to buy me for a present, he was planning all month.

We bought cupcakes at Sam's.  I had planned on it for a month, but then I wondered?  Cheesecake? Or should I just make something and save my 10 bucks.  I bought cupcakes, partly because it was the plan and I hate to screw up my plans, and partly because the cheesecake was $15, and partly because I like shinny pumpkins.  It was a really good decision because Brent had to work (at home) that night (and every night for two weeks) and I ended up making orange chicken for my birthday because he told me would make it but I was hungry, and my kids up past bedtime would be no birthday present. The point being a mom knows what time dinner has to happened for bed to happen on time, and it was getting late, and I was hungry, and orange chicken comes from a box anyway.
I think I was going to tell you something else about my birthday but I can't remember?
This wasn't it, but I always feel young, because I am!  But the other day I found out a friend of mine is comparatively younger, she isn't actually younger, because she has a second grader, but when that second grader was a kindergarten she was younger.  I told her awesome and then she laughed at me.
Oh I remembered, I am super excited.  With my birthday money, I bought new black boots, because the last time I bought black boots I was a junior in high school. I also bought a purse, and I bought new lamps for my bedroom.  I love lighting, absolutely LOVE, like I can't go to a hardware store without going through the lighting aisles.  I have been searching for bedroom lamps for a month or so, and I found them the week before my birthday, then bought them the day after.  Its so awesome, I got two new lamps, so we now have one on either side of the bed.  And now the other lamp that was serving the place next to my side of the bed, is next to my husband's computer desk.  I honestly wish we had these lamps three weeks ago, because my husband has been working from home somewhere between 6:30-7 am most mornings for the last two weeks, and he didn't have a lamp to turn on, and he is great and didn't turn on the overhead light, so he had to work in the dark (while staring at a computer screen).  Poor man, but not anymore!  Although I think his working from home days should be over again.  He was filling in for someone.  Anyway, we need three lamps in our bedroom, its a big bedroom. I love it.  Oh, seriously I'm smitten with my lamps. Now to paint the room, I completely decorated my kids rooms and completely ignored mine.  But over the next few months its my turn, and I'm super excited. I have great plans in my head, and great cheap (frugal) plans.  Ahh, lamps... they are like a miracle.
I know they are, because one of the things I remember the most that an apostle of the Lord said, was when Elder Nelson said, "I pay tribute to Sister Nelson, who never murmured because she had to make do with very little. I recall an experience one night in downtown Boston. We were walking along Boylston Street. There we passed a furniture store. Sister Nelson pressed her nose against the windowpane and asked, Do you think we will ever be able to afford a lamp?" That has been a guiding principle in my 20s.  I often think about something I want for our house, but realize it doesn't matter in life, and think about poor Sister Nelson, before the world was completely globalized, before huge box stores everywhere, you buy a lamp for $15. I think of that principle almost every day, when I try to clean my stupid tiled counter top. And since I hate it so much, I think I should remind myself of this, "Seek not the things of this world but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you (JST, Matthew 6:38)"
But my husband is super awesome, our dryer has been squeaking like a banshee since before we moved, and today he fixed it. Ahh, bliss.  He also made homemade bread. Yeah, I knew I was doing 7 years ago.