How to have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY when you are a MOM...

So yesterday was my birthday... I'm 36! Wow. I remember thinking my mom was old when she was 40... 40 isn't looking too bad anymore! :) What do you do to celebrate your birthday? I have found that if you wait around for other people to make your day special, it usually doesn't meet up to your expectations, or at least it doesn't meet up to mine. Birthday's were never THAT big of a deal when I was a kid growing up, but it was still a special day when we got gifts and had a special meal just for us. Since my birthday is in May, it seemed like it usually fell on what we called "Play Day" at our school: A day where all the rural schools came to our little town and participated in a Music Festival in the morning, and then a track and field day in the afternoon after a big pot luck dinner. I do not remember being in the classroom on my birthday when I was in elementary school. I remember having a big party, so I thought my birthday was always pretty special.

So then I grew up, went to college where no one really cares that it's your birthday, got married, had kids and no one was around to make a big deal out of my birthday. I always get phone calls from family, and I love that, but man, I want to be SPOILED one day a year. When I turned 30, I finally decided to throw myself a party. I invited the people I wanted to come and I served the food that I wanted to eat. It was a really nice birthday. Now I have a new husband who treats my like it's my birthday every day of the year, but I want to feel even MORE special on my birthday, so this is what I have started doing:

(I seriously could not find a picture of myself other than the last pregnant picture I posted, so here is an old one with my handsome husband and lemur... almost a year ago!)
1. Teach your children (as they grow up) how to cook so they can make you breakfast on your birthday. My kids cook with me all the time, and on my birthday Bee and Monkey surprised me by making me breakfast. When I came out of my bedroom, there on the table (with my boquet of lilacs) was a plate with scrambled eggs, english muffins with homemade strawberry jam, and a big tall glass of milk. It was perfect. For good tips on teaching your children how to cook, visit www.chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com

2. Make yourself (or buy yourself) something YOU like to eat. I love apricot pie and no one ever makes me one except my Mom. Since my older brother's birthday is the day after mine (May 8... Happy Birthday Frog) 2 cakes in 2 days was 2much at our house, so my mom would make me an apricot pie for my birthday. This year on my birthday I made myself an apricot pie... and it turned out SO YUMMY. Here's how to make one if you never have... (and yes, the date is off one day on my camera... oops)

"Stew" some apricots. I used 4 cans of apricots with only about half the juice. I put in about 1/2 cup of tapioca and about 1/2 cup of sugar. I boiled it on low for about 20-25 minutes until the apricots were in smaller chunks and the mixture was thick - the tapioca was clear instead of white.

Make a pie crust. I used butter instead of shortening, and it turned out great.

Pour the apricot mixture into the pie crust. Put a top crust on and bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes covered with aluminum foil. Take the foil off and bake another 10 minutes.

(Bee wrote Happy B-Day on top of the pie with a tooth pick) Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or cream. I had the left over crust and filling last night, and a big slice of pie and cream this morning for breakfast... yum!!

3. Do something that YOU like to do. I love to be outside and work in the yard. I even love mowing the lawn... so that's what I treated myself to on my birthday. If I could bend over, I would have planted 4 or 5 flats of flowers and the rest of the garden ... that will have to wait for a few weeks if Hunter doesn't get to it first.

4. Buy yourself something you don't need, but something that you want. I love old stuff and when I saw this old milk can, it reminded me of my Grandpa Crook's Dairy so I bought it for myself. When you buy yourself a gift, you can be certain you will like it! (remember, no feeling guilty, it's your birthday!)

5. Eat ice cream. (or what ever YOUR thing is) I don't have a picture because we haven't gone yet... we are going tonight... but when Hunter asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I told him I wanted to go to Coldstone Creamery. He looked at me kind of funny and said, "you don't want to go out to dinner?" Hunter is definitely a steak and potatoes kind a guy and will eat an extra steak or another plate of salad for dessert rather than have cake and ice cream, but for me, life is all about good ice cream (and pie, but I rarely make it). So he said he would take us to Coldstone for my birthday (they have really good fruit smoothies that he likes... of course I go straight for the good old ice cream and lots of mix-in's).

6. Celebrate yourself by thinking about what you do WELL instead of what you need to improve on... which is what we tend to do. Give yourself a break, and HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!