I am not a big holiday person. I am pretty indifferent to most holidays, except for Christmas, which makes me feel all warm and gooey inside. I am even pretty lukewarm about my own birthday. It's just another day.
Like today. Which happened to be my 46th birthday.
It started out like any other day. I had gotten too little sleep because I had too many visitors to my bed last night (a bout of insomnia struck the boys room). And I woke up a little late because some cutie pie had adjusted the setting on my alarm clock, again.
I ate my breakfast in the car and rushed to get to work on time.
I was greeted there by my first hint that this was not just another day. My stage manager (basically a theater teachers right hand man, or right hand girl in this case) brought me a lovely bouquet of roses. Roses! Teenage girls can really surprise and delight you sometimes with their thoughtfulness.
A sweet boy in my first period class told me that I looked great for 26. I think he might be gunning for a bigger part in our next play.
My funniest student brought me a Crunch bar. Loved that!
Throughout the day my students showered me with lots of birthday wishes. And mostly they seemed surprised at how nonchalant I was about the whole thing. But its just another day.
Or it was until I got home.
And then I got the best birthday present ever. I walked in the door and my kids all shouted "Surprise"! They were each wearing an adorable homemade party hat that they had decorated themselves. They led me into the kitchen where they had hung a "Happy Birthday Mom" banner across the room. On the table were two cakes: a Tiramisu and a cheesecake. No boring sheet cakes in this kitchen. We lit some candles and ate cake at 4 in the afternoon. Grace and Haven made me cards and the Littles smothered me with kisses (and cake).
A few minutes later Brian dropped like a fly, with a stomach bug. So I spent the rest of the evening corralling kids and doing laundry, with a brief stop at the McDonald's drive through. Mama doesn't cook on her birthday or pretty much any other day :)
The house is quiet now, except for the tapping of my key board. Ahhhhh, it's my birthday. I might just need to fix myself a drink and toast to myself.
Now, as I have a moment to reflect on it, I guess when you're the mama to six extraordinary babies, teacher to dozens of big-hearted students, and married to the greatest guy in the world, no day really is just another day.
They are all pretty amazing.
Cheers!