Happy Birtday to Me!

Today I am 40. Now, I know women who insist on carrying their "nines" forever, and I've never seen the point of it. It took me 40 years to get here, and some of them were tough. I'm darned proud I made it!

The day started at about 2:45am with Baby needing attention. I was fighting insomnia and was just getting to sleep, so I kicked Hubby out of bed. I did the same when, at 7am, Kiddo crawled into bed with us to play dinosaur cave under the covers, but this time I claimed Birthday sleeping-in privileges.

About 9am I woke up to... total silence. No television, no computers, no kids, no big construction vehicles in the lot a half-block away working, no rude people driving by with their car stereos set to 11. It was so strange I actually snapped wide awake.

Hubby had given me his gift earlier this week: simply the bestest, most uberest coffee maker ever! I'd programmed it the night before with some good Sumatra, so I went downstairs for coffee. I step out front with my coffee for a smoke. Just as I'm finishing, I see Hubby pull up with a balloon in the car, so I sneak back upstairs so as not to spoil any surprises.

A few minutes later Kiddo yells up: "MOMMY! YOUR BIRTHDAY IS DOWNSTAIRS!!" I come down to fresh lilies, a balloon that Kiddo picked out all by himself, and fresh gooey cinnamon rolls. Yum! We all have cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Hubby's oldest son called wanting to hang out today, so when Baby naps Hubby collects Kiddo and they take off to collect the Oldest and go to a park. I've got a whole two hours or so of... more quiet!! I swear, that's the best present a Mom could get.

I set out to continue my hot pickled cauliflower project. Hubby loves the stuff, and we can't get any grocery store to stock it. Last year I tried to make some, but it turned out to be sweet pickled cauliflower. It was great, but not what Hubby was looking for. I think I've got the right recipe this year: it only uses a half-cup of sugar, and involves garlic, horseradish, and those little red hot peppers that you have to wear gloves to handle. I get to use my other birthday presents: Nana got me a real pressure cooker for canning, and Grandpa got me a Foodsaver. I've been using the Foodsaver for freezing blanched produce from the garden, but today I used it to vac-pack the leftover little red peppers. The pressure cooker holds way more jars then my hot-water bath canner, and I'm able to can all eight pints of cauliflower at once.

Baby woke just as I put the last jar in the canner to process, so we're sitting here finishing off the cinnamon rolls. Enjoying the quiet.

Nana told me once that her 30's ended up being nothing to be afraid of; her 40's were great, and her 50's (which she was in at the time) were awesome. I don't fear 40 one bit; every day is a bit of an adventure with the kids, and for the most part I like my life just fine. It took me 40 years to get here, and I think I made out pretty good!