My Beautiful Bubble: Gifts of Love

Again, its been awhile since I posted but I hadn’t really had any lightbulb topics to write about, well, I had a few but I’d start typing and quickly realize it was turning into a rant and thought 1) I promised my next post would be more light-hearted, and, 2) I rant too much, as it is.

Last night though as I was lying in bed reflecting over my day I thought ‘this would make a nice, cheerful, loving blog post.’

This post is in honor of my husband, Wesley.

Yesterday was his 24^th birthday. It was his second birthday we’ve celebrated married and probably 10^th or 11^th we’ve celebrated as friends. So, basically for a long time I and my family have gotten to be a part of his birthday celebrations and this year was no different.

I’ve been planning his ‘party’ for several months. Seriously, I ordered his present in May and have been discussing cake ideas with him since his last birthday! I had planned on having his family over to my parent’s house for cake, swimming, and whatever other activities people chose to do but then all last minute – spontaneous like all but two of his siblings went on a family vacation. Obviously plans changed.

Monday I started making his cake, a Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Cake (which, by the way, I thought I was the creator of but after instagraming #strawberryshortcakeicecreamcake I was proved otherwise by five other pictures popping up with the same hashtag). I baking a shortbread crust, sliced tons of strawberries, and made a strawberry sauce to keep the crust moist. Yesterday I layered a gallon of ice cream over the crust, breaking one of my favorite Santouku knives in the process, (Ice cream, people, I was cutting ice cream and broke a knife… maybe it didn’t deserve to be a favorite…) then topped it with whipped topping, and later, right before serving, spooned the sliced and sugared strawberries over it and piped more whipped topping on it in fancy little dollops around the edge. It was indeed a success although I made WAY too big of a cake, well, everyone got seconds, thirds, and etc. so I may be the only one who feels that way ;)

I invited all of the family that was in town over for Wesley’s birthday dinner of Mommy’s fried Chicken Strips, (she makes the best-ever chicken strips, trust me on this, I use the same recipe and they’re never as good) Oven Baked Fries, and Ramen Noodle Salad. One of Wesley’s brothers showed up after work and then another brother and sister-in-law arrived in time for cake J Not quite the party I had planned but it was still fun and full of yumminess.

Over the course of the evening people ate, swam, and had cake.

Last night as I reflected over the day I had anticipated so much I smiled knowing in spite of a few things not being as I had imagined it, it still was perfect. I also noticed something else. I had looked forward to this day more than I have ever looked forward to any of my own birthdays. I couldn’t wait to celebrate with Wesley, couldn’t wait to make his day has special as I imagined it should be, couldn’t wait to give him his present which I was so very excited about. In fact, Wesley’s birthday probably meant more to me than it did to him, and the only thing I can figure that made it so special to me was that I got to spend an entire day trying to show him how much I love and appreciate him.

People are always talking about the “five love languages” and although I’ve never put much stock in it or been able to narrow down which of the five speaks the most to me, yesterday I looked at it backwards. I think Wesley’s birthday meant so much to me because maybe I speak the love language of gifts, I’m not sure if I hear gifts, but maybe I speak it. That would explain why picking, ordering, and presenting Wesley’s birthday gift was so exciting to me, and why planning on a small party for him was important; why spending an entire day showing him my love in action was so necessary to me.

And trust me, I of all people know that Wesley is worth filling every day with ways of showing him my love and appreciation, and I try, but I’m glad we have some days set aside simply to honor the one’s you love.

Now I get to look forward to Wesley’s first Father’s Day and find ways to show him how it thrills me to have him be the daddy to our little girl <3

I'd like to send a thank you out to those who celebrated with us, helping to make Wesley's birthday into what I thought it ought to be, thank you all :)