"How does a SAHM celebrate her birthday on a weekday"

"How does a SAHM celebrate her birthday on a weekday"

That was exactly my google search yesterday late afternoon. And guess what, I didn't find anything related to that (shame on you, google, aham, mr-know-it-all). I came through a series of articles on how to plan a party for kids, but nothing about how to celebrate your own birthday. After this disappointment, I decided to change a little my search words and as a result I found an article on how to spend your birthday alone! It was interesting, and somewhat, gave me some basic ideas. Unfortunately, I couldn't apply 99.99999% of it because, obviously, a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) is the exactly opposite of being alone, ask that to any mom, specifically, ask her about the times she is eventually attempting to "go potty" at some point of her day, if there is not a whole crowd outside the bathroom door, including your husband (go figure it).....

As you know (maybe you don't), my last birthday post was kind of gloomy. It was a dark, rainy MONDAY, and my kids were less well-behaved that they are now (thanks be to God, they are lovely most of the time nowadays. And please don't make me bite my tongue after I write this!) Anyway, I was determined to make up for last year and try to enjoy my birthday! God cooperated and it is a beautiful, warm day in central Texas! Gotta love Texas! And I certainly do!

As I was planning how to spend my birthday last night I wishfully thought about lingering a bit more than the usual on my bed while my dream-husband would wake up cheerfully, kiss me good morning, add a "It's your birthday, amor (aka, love)", stand up and warm up the milk for the kiddos, and then start preparing breakfast! But then, the one-time-inevitable-thing-to-happen-once-in-a-couple's-life did took place this morning as Dan forgot about my birthday. I guess dream-husbands can eventually be forgetful.

As I didn't get a over-cheerful husband (he was ok, not grumpy, to be fair to him) in the first seconds of the morning nor a happy-birthday-good-morning-kiss it was time for me to realize he had forgotten about my birthday and then I was the one to wake up and warm up the milk, change the kids' clothes,  Nico's diaper and start making coffee. And I was thinking "I bet Rebecca will remember my birthday before Dan does". And so it happened.

"Today is mommy's birthday" - said a cute, cute little girl's voice in the middle of breakfast. (I mentioned it to her on dinner last night. She has a great memory and just plain loves a birthday, Anyone's birthday, actually!)

After that everything went back on track and here is my list of "How does a SAHM celebrate her birthday on a weekday".

1. Be cheerful and serve the ones in your family with love: To serve is a mom's most basic duty. To serve with love (or at least to try to do that) it's a GOOD mom's basic duty. And it is what will make you the most happy at the end of day.

2. Spend time with God. I'm fortunate enough to say that it has probably been years since I haven't attended Mass on my birthday! To receive God's grace, hopefully in the early morning, on my birthday, I consider it to be God's gift to me! This year, I went a little ahead, and decided to add "go to confession" too! Since we were on and off in vacation for the last 45+ days, I couldn't go to confession in January. So today after Mass, I drove to downtown Houston with the kiddos and went to confession at Holy Cross Chapel (they always have a priest available, and they are JUST wonderful). Got some good advice and a fresh start-over, just in time for lent, next week.

3. Try to spend some time alone! Yes, try to! In my case, I'm a member of the YMCA, city-wide, so I can go to any YMCA in the Greater Houston Area and let my kids play at the child care area! They love it there, which makes it much easier on me! So today I went to the tellepsen YMCA in downtown Houston. the best Y of all! I was decided to sweat-the heck-out! In my silly mind, I had planned to actually run on their wonderful running track for 20 minutes, do my 8-min abs work-out, take a marvelous shower in peace using my lovely L'occitane shower gel, blow-dry my hair, and then get my kids out of child care and drive home feeling completely rejuvenated! It turns out that when you attend mass at 8:30, drive 35 min to downtown Houston, go to confession and then go to the Y, you don't have much time left to be back in town to take your daughter to her 12:15pm pre-k. So what I managed to do was to run/walk for 5 min (I was totally out of breath by then), do my 8-min abs work-out, row for 13 min, run like a crazy to take a shower (I was certainly NOT giving up my shower-at-peace with my L'occitane showe gel), run like a crazy even more, get me and the kids outta there, give them some snacks and water in the car, get to our hometown, stop at chick-fil-A, buy 2 kid's meals with apple juice, distribute food in the car, and drop Rebecca at school, which amazingly, worked out just in time!

4. Check your social media happy birthday wishes and then write on your blog! That's your time off. When we finally got home after dropping Rebecca at school, I gave Nico a shower and put him to a well-deserved for the both of us nap!

5. Plan a special dinner! In my case, my sweet good friend Renee, offered to watch my kids tonight while Dan and I would go out to celebrate my birthday! Which would be a lovely plan if I haven't just got back from a 2-days road trip which meant getting sick of eating out. Sorrowfully, I canceled the free-babysitting. Now I'm thinking of buying a nice red meat, to go with my white rice, caeser salad and yummy asparagus for dinner! Chocolate for dessert! Girl, do get yourself a dessert for your birthday!

6. Get a massage. That's what Dan suggested me, but for an always budgeting family, I declined. If you do have your husband watching the kids for you, and some extra money, go get yourself a massage. I've heard it's awesome! In my case, I'll gladly accept a bubble bath as my compensation award after the kids go to bed.

7. Be grateful for all the good things in your life! And be joyful for your family and friends today and tomorrow as you get one year older! Wow. I'm 29 years old now! Better enjoy the heck out of my last year in my twenties!

xoxo
Gabby