Life with Lin: Birthdays

My birthday was this past week. I'm thirty-six. In case you missed that I said,

I kind of can't believe it myself. I can't believe how old I am or how little I've accomplished. I feel like I should be able to say I've done so much more. The thing that is most surprising though, is how lame birthdays get once you're grown.

I kept getting asked, "What are you doing for your birthday?"

My response was, "I'm taking my kids to the places they need to go, we have to do school (I homeschool my kids), and really need to clean the house because the young men from church are coming over for an activity." On top of all of that, it was New Beginnings for the young women at my church and guess who was in charge. ME! (Can you tell it was pineapple themed?)

I don't mind. I love my children, I love my home, I love the youth at church. None of it were things I minded doing. It was just there was NOTHING special about this day. I think the most exciting thing for me was when Google Home sang "Happy Birthday" to me and called me the most amazing person in the world. I actually felt a little teary eyed in that moment. What kind of crazy person does that?

After I answer that question, the next question is always, "Well, then what are you doing this weekend?"

I think on it a minute and say, "My car really needs an oil change and new tires."

Y'all, that's an expensive expense! It needs to be done, and it takes some time. So, my weekend will be that. When this posts, my weekend will be over, but at the time I'm typing this, it's Thursday night. ;)

All of this made me think about my birthdays when I was younger. I think the biggest one was my 16th. I was at basketball practice. We had just finished and I was sweaty and nasty. I was going for water from the water fountain and my friends grabbed me a blindfolded me. They put me in the back of the car and took me around town. They walked me through the woods and Wal-mart and all kinds of places completely blind folded. They did buy me some Rolos though, so at least I had chocolate. I still wonder why no one questioned why teenagers were leading a blindfolded teenager through town. Maybe I didn't seem scared so they assumed it was okay. Finally they took me out somewhere, lead me inside, and removed the blindfold. I was in my basketball shorts, t-shirt, and covered in dry sweat, but that didn't seem to matter. All of my friends and even some people I didn't think cared about me too much, but were there for a party, were there. They were yelling, "Surprise!" We spent hours hanging out and watching movies. It was so much fun!

Of course, I don't want anyone kidnapping me. I have too much to do for that. I also don't mind doing nothing for my birthday. I just think it's interesting how it was once this huge thing in my life and now it's just a day that comes and goes and hardly gets any attention at all.