Happy Birthday to You!

This week is a busy work week for me! Along with the regular household work and wife and mommy duties, I'm preparing for VBS that will be held next week and working on two birthday parties for three of my children for next weekend! Every year, the same craziness happens in the midst of our family's mostly relaxing summer because there are TEN BIRTHDAYS in our family and extended families in the months of June and July. Our one daughter with a birthday in December is the only grandchild on either side left out of summer birthdays! One day, I think she'll see it as a blessing that she's only got to share her birth month with Jesus.

This will be a quick article so I can get back to all that work while the kiddos are napping. I simply thought I'd share why I go through all the work every summer when I could just do a little family shin-dig and a few slaps on the back for each of my kids.

1. Life is precious! Each life that comes into this world is someone made in the image of God, perfectly created by the Master Craftsman, and unique. Each birth is a miracle. Every year, we're happy to have been given another 365 days with each of our children and pray for many more joyful years to follow.


2. The birthday is the one day that truly belongs to each of our children. Thus far we haven't had any multiple births, so we can say the day we celebrate each child's birth, we truly celebrate them. At our house, Christmas is about Jesus, so we typically just get one gift for each of our kids. They get plenty more from grandparents, aunts and uncles, and church family. We really try to make the gifts received on their birthdays extra special, not necessarily expensive (though that's sometimes the case), but extra thought given to something they'd like.


3. All the planning and effort says, "I love you." I believe my kids are seeing the hard work and appreciate it when they get to have fun with their friends and family doing just the things they imagined they could do at their party.


4. The guests. Our kids get to spend time with their nearest and dearest friends and as much family as can be there on their own turf. Not school, not church, but their home. Usually. We've had parties at church and parties at a grandparents' house, but for the most part, we're somewhere the kids are relaxed. Parties most of all, are about spending time with people, not the food, the decorations, or the activities. My husband's going to grill at the girls' luau next Saturday, but for the most part, the food will already be prepared so we can be with those special people who are there to bless our kids. *In case you're wondering, this doesn't mean we invite the whole world. I try to stick to the rule that the number of children invited is also the number of the child's age, but it's not a strict rule.


5. It provides us the opportunity to publicly praise God for the gifts each of our children are to us. Sometimes, this is a witnessing opportunity, but it is always the joy of our hearts as parents to reflect on how God has been so good to us to entrust us with those four little lives.

So, you might not hear from me much over the next ten days, but know I'm doing what I can to choose what's best!

*Again, I'm turning into a broken record, but I'd love to hear from someone else about a Titus 2 Woman you'd like to make a Wednesday's Woman! If there are no volunteers, there will be victims! :)