celebrations

Hard to believe it's August already. Brian and I were talking the other day and saying it seems like summer was just getting going. We both love the summer season and it's much too short here in Illinois. 

The end of July is popular for birthdays in our family. Our oldest son, Philip was born on July 21st. One of the happiest days of my life. He made me a mother, which is something I had dreamed about since I was 12 years old. Philip would've been 32 years old this year. His life ended tragically in 2009 when he was only 21 years old, due to the diseases of mental illness and subsequently, addiction. After 11 years, I thought his birthday wouldn't be so hard, but it was. Brian and I both were glad to see that day come to a close.

And then Brian himself turned the big six-oh recently! He sure doesn't look 60, does he? I got a huge chuckle from a comment on my Instagram that said the first time she saw a picture of Brian, she thought "You go girl with that young guy!" 🤣 We spent the day doing what Brian loves best ~ going back to his home town and relaxing by the lake (Lake Michigan..."The Michigan Ocean" as we affectionately call it) and going out to eat at a hip, new Mexican place that had a huge selection of different tacos. Of course, I made my "young birthday guy" his favorite birthday cake: a banana cake with cream cheese frosting. We purposely avoid processed sugar as much as possible, so I was excited to find a banana cake recipe that used honey. The good thing about this recipe is that you can also make it vegan by using maple syrup and flax eggs, and you can even make it gluten-free by using GF flour. You can find the recipe from Cookie + Kate here. I'm making the cake again today because I have some overly ripe bananas I need to use. I'll skip the frosting this time. We'll just eat it as a snack cake.

More birthday celebrations at the end of the month with my mom turning 80! That's my cute little red-headed mom in the middle with me (with the glasses) and my aunt; my mom's sister. Just like I said about my husband, I certainly don't think my mom looks 80! I hope that when I'm that age, I look and feel as good as she does. She takes very good care of herself, eating a very healthy diet and exercising every day. We celebrated by taking Mom out to lunch at a wonderful seafood restaurant in the Chicago suburbs. The food was amazing (Brian's caprese salad with shrimp; my wild-caught grouper; side dish of wild rice pilaf and roasted potatoes and vegges) and huge portions that gave us plenty of leftovers to take home.

For my mom's birthday gift this year, I posted on Facebook asking any who knew my mom, to please send me small notes of why they love or admire her. I collected the notes and put them in a big glass jar. My aunt made that pretty tag for the jar. I went to Mom's house on her actual birthday and presented her with the jar. She lifted the lid and pulled out one of the notes. She unfolded it and read it and burst into tears. She said, "Are all these messages for me?" I told her yes and she just sat there, softly crying for awhile. We spent hours going through each message; lots of tears shed but plenty of laughter, too. I think this was one of Mom's favorite birthday gifts ever.

 As much fun and filled with love all these "big" birthday celebrations were this year, originally we were going to have a big family party at our house. I pictured our small house bustling with all our loved ones, sitting around the kitchen, living room and patio, talk and laughter carrying through the air, plenty of good food and drinks going around. But with the coronavirus still rampant, we had to cancel the party. It broke my heart to have to do so.

Hope you're all having a good weekend. It's cloudy and cool here today ~ enough where I could turn off the AC and open windows and doors. 

Be well and safe! 💗