This is 34

Yesterday was my birthday.

I woke up expecting a card and maybe a gift. 

What I got was SO much better. 

I did get a card (with a wonderfully-thoughtful handwritten note of appreciation and love from The Husband--there may have been a few tears when I read it later), and he gave me a French vanilla frappucino and some pastries he'd picked up on the way home from work. 

 

But what he told me as he gave me those things was pretty darn amazing:  while I took Oliver to the doctor, he and the children would be cleaning the house. And they did. He continued cleaning well into the afternoon while the kids and I played outside. We ordered take-out from Cheddars and had a quiet dinner together as a family at home. 

 

The reason he chose to clean on my birthday was so that today, when he took Jack and Ella on errands and fun adventures, he didn't want me to have to clean. He wanted me to do whatever I wanted. So I did! While Oliver slept, I took a shower this morning. Then, I ate spinach dip and chips for lunch and didn't have to fix lunch for ANYONE else! I folded a basket of laundry because I wanted to. I snuggled the baby and we enjoyed the cool breeze outside. Then, when the three of them came back from adventuring (park, mall, lunch), he read them stories and got them down for naps. And, I went to get a pedicure. A heavenly pedicure gifted to me by my momma before the baby was born. The Husband knew my heart and heard my love language loud and clear this year. These two days have been the BEST gift he's ever given me, and he has truly served with a servant's heart: out of love. ❤

 

Now, as I sit here on my couch in my very quiet house (it's almost eerily quiet...) while he and the kids visit a bookstore and the baby sleeps again (he fought sleep HARD while I got my toes done 😔), I'm writing this post. No interruptions. No needs to be met. Noses (or bottoms) to be wiped. Laundry to be washed (because I think our washing machine is broken 😳). No dishes to be loaded (they're clean). Just rest and thoughts being typed out. And then, when I hit "publish," I'll pull out my Bible study that's been so neglected this last week, and I will read and study and reflect until they come home. 

~~~~~

Something I've reflected on a lot the last two days has been how I see myself. I rarely take pictures of myself, and when I do, I take 20 to find that one that looks "decent."  But I'm always taking pictures of the kids and The Husband. Why is that? Is that a common "mom" thing? I don't want my kids looking back at this blog when they're older and wondering where I was. 

 

So, new year new me.  I'll be here, flaws and all. This is the year of the selfie for me. 

 

 

 

And, for better or worse, I will document me just as much as I document those I love. Because I matter, too. 

This is 34.