30 is the new 29

     I am 30...wow, I am really 30!  And Mother’s Day was only a day away from my birthday.  It is the first year I am celebrating Mother’s Day as a mom, as I enter a new decade. These two major marks in my life coinciding seem to be synchronicity.  I have always loved my birthday-- I usually celebrate the month, if that gives any indication on how I feel about my special day. While most women do not talk about their age and dislike getting older I love the years being added to my life.  As you age there is so much more in life that you get to experience and appreciate.

     
     I learned the beauty of age and the loveliness of Mother’s Day from my grandmother Bubby Martha. A friend of hers once asked my age and when I replied, she looked at me longingly and proclaimed that she wished she could be 19 again. My grandmother made a face and said, I would NOT want to be 19 again, I am happy to be 83 years old. The thought that someone was happy to be so old made such an impression on me. From then on I celebrate every birthday and am always proud to tell anyone who asks my age. I also remember as a child we would always go to my grandmother’s for Mother’s Day. Bubby Martha loved the special day.  She loved her grandchildren coming over to play baseball in her backyard.  She would always come out and pitch for us, even in her glamorous pantsuits and face full of make up!  After, we would all go inside and enjoy her famous tuna sandwiches (with shredded carrots inside...so delicious!)  She would always tell me (even when I was really little) that she felt like she had 3 lives, one when she was a girl, one when she got married and had children, and one after my grandfather passed away and she was single again.  Bubby Martha always made sure to let me know how much she loved and enjoyed each of her “lives” , each one was unique and she cherished them all.  

30 is a new decade. It is a new place in life where you are considered a full-on grown up. 
     
      My 20’s were all about partying. They were about where we were going to go and who we were going to meet.  And in my 20’s I fell in love, with the love of my life, I married and started my “second” life.  Even though I was a grown, married woman I still allowed people to dictate how I felt by their actions. I gave power to other people to hurt me, I gave them power by caring what they thought and caring what they said...even if I knew that they did not have my best interest at heart.  

     
     Now I am 30, I am a wife and this Mother’s day I am a mother. The growth and joy of my little boy weigh on my thoughts.  It is up to me to guide him in the right direction.  I must show him the path to happiness, to love, and to all that is good.  I want to teach him that he must first love himself and then he will be able to love others (this is a trait that my parents successfully taught all 11 of my siblings and me) and love the world that he will one day create for himself. I truly hope he will be able to learn through example.  So on this Mother’s day and 30th birthday of mine I am making a commitment to grow stronger in my life.  I will continue creating my life for me and the ones I love. I will take responsibility for my feelings and I will be more careful of who I let into my precious world, because in this new world, in this new life I am now responsible for another life besides my own.  

                                                 {mother's day breakfast on the porch}

                                                                   {gift from Kol}

 

                     To start the decade off right I threw my own 30th birthday party. Since I was born in 1982 I felt it was apropo to throw an 80’s themed party.  I love to dress up!  Lucky for me, my lovely friends obliged and we had a fantastic time dancing the night away to some awesome 80’s tunes with DJ Dazue spinning it up.  One of the major crowd pleasers was A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I kick it?” And now I sing to myself, with the confidence of a 30 year old mom “Yes you can!!!”

 

                                                                     {DJ Dazue}

 

                           {We made a bunch of signs w/ 80's phrases to hang around the yard}