What do I want for my birthday?

Yes, today is my birthday, and my mom's given me a GREAT gift: she has the girls all day for me. Since my life is typically on the busy side, I truly crave a day of, well, nothing. And yet everything.

I just got back from hours of sitting and READING by the shores of Loch Raven Reservoir. I hadn't read a book in 3 years, and I devoured Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea. Diana had given it to me for my birthday last year, and it was the perfect thing to read at this moment on this day for a lot of reasons. You'll just have to pick it up and read it for yourself. I also read a collection of writings by C.S. Lewis on the topic of love, all of which was tremendously satisfying. The geese were honking, the water lapped gently, and there was, for some of the time, a nice breeze. It even threatened to rain, which would not have bothered me in the least.

Then I came home, ate some lunch on the porch swing, and took a nap. Now I am blogging, because it is something I really enjoy and I've not done it because I've been back and forth the the Ranch a lot lately (but having lots of fun AND getting work done!)

Then? I'm going hiking and running in the woods with my lifetime friend, Diana. We might live less than a mile apart, but we rarely do anything one-on-one, so this is another very sweet gift on my day of nothing...and everything.

Lastly, Alan and I will go to Mom and Dad's together to just hang out, hear about the girls' and Mom's adventures together (Amelia is currently challenging my abilities to decipher her best mode of operation when it comes to potty training. I was quite happy to turn her over to my mom for a day and let her work her grandma magic on the problem. We'll certainly enjoy the stories, even if we're still scratching our heads at the day's end!) What a nice day. Time to myself, time with a lifelong friend, time with the two people who ushered me into this life, and with the three who now share it under the same roof with me. All with very little thought to TIME at all! What a gift. Just what I wanted.