At home, we enjoyed some simple birthday traditions with the boys. Our family’s birthday traditions consist of a dinner out to eat, cake at home, singing all 8 or 9 birthday songs that we know, spending about an hour talking about all the things the birthday person learned and experienced throughout the year, and as a way to “give back” for all that we’ve been blessed with, the birthday person chooses a special service to do.
My birthday service this year was a little different than most I’ve done. Even though I didn’t want to do this, I knew back in the spring that I needed to make it my birthday service. I came to a point where I could not ignore my increasing fatigue, back pain and other issues that have slowly gotten worse. I was getting discouraged that my young body was behaving more like a 74-year-old body, and even more discouraged that a chiropractor pointed this out to me. I decided the time had come to stop making excuses and to actually be serious about proper SELF CARE. I knew my husband and children depended on it. So I forced myself to make this my focus for my birthday and really the whole year.
Jeremy’s birthday service was a quest into finding more information about his family history, particularly with finding more stories and pictures of the ancestor names he already knows about. In October, he easily spent 20+ hours doing research, but it has been ongoing. Along with more photos, he’s been able to find living relatives that we didn’t know about, and lots of fun stories from old newspapers that have recently been put online. He recently went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, (3 hour drive) to find family documents and pictures that aren’t online yet. It’s been awesome to see him so engaged in learning about our family and eager to share the information with everyone to help pass on the family legacies. Sometimes he won’t go to sleep until I literally pull him away from pedigrees and obituaries. I know that all the work he is doing is blessing his life and our entire family’s lives!
