Thoughts on Birthdays

It’s my birthday!  Usually around Mother’s Day but sometime before my birthday, my favorite bird of all time shows up.  He and a couple of friends did just that this week. John was outside at the bar-b-que and he saw him at Gran’s feeder.  I call it that because I first put it up when Gran came to visit in February.  Since he brought a buddy and two lady friends, I am hoping that they might have a family and the babies will come to the feeder later on.  Wouldn’t that be a joy.

I plan to celebrate with my family and have already started to do so.  My mother came last weekend, this weekend my sister came for the night with her husband, and Sunday we will be in New Hampshire with our daughter and grandchildren.  I will miss my daughter who lives in North Carolina but for sure we will get a chance to celebrate in the next couple of weeks.

Memories

I was reminiscing with my sister about the big birthdays in my life up til now.  At 20 I decided to celebrate by marrying the love of my life.  Therefore it has been pretty difficult to top that party but we have tried.  I have no recollection of my 30th except that I know I had a couple of young children and we lived on the coast of Maine.  My 40th birthday I spent with good friends with a trip to Great Harbor Key (that’s another story altogether) and my 50th was the one and only surprise party I have ever had.  The party was pulled together by my daughters and my husband and friends came from all corners of the country and from many different eras of our life.  It was really a highlight.  My 60th birthday was here in North Hatley, on the porch and it was wonderful.  My family were all here and I loved it.  To tell you the truth about birthdays, they are all big birthdays.  The neat thing for me is the big birthdays coincide with big anniversaries for John and me too.

The 65th was also our 45th wedding anniversary and we had a beautiful party here on our porch with 45 of our greatest friends.  What could be better.  A week to the day after 66 was the heart attack.  Frankly, I do not recommend that as a way to celebrate.  I would rather have diamonds than a stent but I am so grateful for that “Reliant” that you can have all the diamonds back.  So Sunday I celebrate 67 and a year of adjusting to my new normal.  Happy and full of joy with all I have in my life.

Walking, Snow and Sunshine

This past week was a wonderful week for walking.  Probably one of my best weeks ever.  Previous week was in March and I hit 29.1 miles (that’s 46.3k for my Canadian friends) and this week I am at 29.9 miles (48.8k).   We started the week with a snowstorm, yes, a snowstorm.  My sister was here and we walked together with my walking buddy, Jennifer and her dog Lexi, on Monday.  You could probably hear us cursing the freezing cold wind as we rounded the end of the lake.  Never thought I would be that cold walking in May. We, my sister was back again, ended it with a gorgeous walk Saturday morning which found us peeling off layers very quickly and hoping for a breeze.  The irony of it all.

The reason for the push is because I have found to my great displeasure that my summer clothes are somewhat smaller than they once were.  Since I most definitely have not needed them for many months, I was a trifle surprised when I went to get a pair of shorts and they were snug.  Time to get back to the priorities in my life, walking and eating lots and lots of fruit and veggies.  Must have been all those chips in Ireland!!!

Speaking of fruits and veggies, enjoy this little video.  I haven’t tried to share a video on the blog before but this one just really appeals to me so I hope you can spend a couple of minutes and watch it.  I recently discovered that my dogs absolutely love broccoli stems and they follow me around waiting for me to chop some broccoli so they can have some.  Who knew?

Friday night dinner

Couldn’t resist showing you a picture of our Friday night dinner.  Well, the vegetable portion of it anyway.  I just thought it was so pretty.  Sweet potatoes cut into cubes, fresh asparagus, orange and yellow peppers and some sweet vidalia onion.  Tossed with the best olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a little pink Himalayan sea salt and ground pepper, bake it for 45 minutes at 350F and just enjoy it.   If you like meat then choose your favorite.  John served a pork tenderloin marinated and cooked on the grill.  Yum all around.

Have a wonderful week everyone.  Life is good, the forecast is for weather to improve and be warm the way it should be.