Oh how did I let myself get so behind? Busy, busy, busy. Travel, travel, travel. Homeschool, hom….you get the idea. Whereas for years I would stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning to crank out the next blog post now I at the end of the day I go to bed. What’s not done is not done. I’m getting old y’all! 🙂 
We celebrated Joy’s birthday in June…when it actually happened. She is eleven years old! I know it’s redundant to keep talking about the time and how fast if goes, but there again it’s so true and hard to believe. We took Joy to the movie Inside Out for her birthday. What an appropriate movie for there age–all those emotions.
For lunch she asked to go to the Olive Garden. Ah a girl after my own heart!
For the evening meal the kids get to choose a meal for me to make them. The kids are growing up and finally veering from the usual “Sopa” meal for their birthday, sniff. But Joy was still easy on me. She wanted tuna sandwiches. That girl loves my tuna and egg salad sandwiches. Cracks me up! She’s always saying I should put my recipes on the blog. You know I just dump when I make those and they are so basic…but I’m glad she loves them. Maybe I’ll put it on here one day for her though.
Such a simple birthday, yet it’s so special to celebrate with family. Our tradition as we eat is to go around and have everyone say something they love or appreciate about the birthday girl. This is always a hit!
Ah, Joy, 11 years, you are such a bright fire. Whatever you do you shine brightly and give it your all. You amaze me. Where did you get all that energy? I pray you will take your talents and energy and use them to serve the Lord and others. You are so giving and the first one to be willing to give up your prize possessions to someone else. May you also grow in self control and learn to give those disappointments and frustrations over to the Lord. I love you Joyful! I’m so thankful for these eleven years God has given me with you. I pray we celebrate many more birthdays together!
What a neat tradition to go around and have everyone say something they like about the birthday girl/boy. It looks like it was a special day.