Birthdays, Instruction Manuals, and stuff that orbits the Planet Bespin

This week was my birthday (do-do-do-do-do-doo-do-doo). That's 37 trips around the sun and here I am gearing up for another go. My coworkers surprised me with a some goodies including a chocolate peanut butter cup in the shape of the Death Star (that's no moon, ladies and gentlemen; that's a fracking space station), a friend took me out to lunch, and awaiting me at home was homemade cream pasta with smoked trout and a carrot cake (plus a serenade from my niece on the answering machine that's totally becoming my ringtone). In fact, I'm having a slice of that carrot cake right now with a Ruthless Rye. Yep, that's at 4:30 pm on a Saturday because I've declared the few no-man's-land days between my birthday and Mother's Day to be my own special precious and the leftover birthday cake will bow to my will.

It evened rained on my birthday a little, which in the midst of a drought is small drippy blessing that we'll all receive with gratitude.

Carrot cake aside, the week was a little rough. Parenting can be a tough gig, no joke. If the world were a just place, you'd pop out an instruction manual right after you popped out the baby; it would totally be worth birthing the binding. As it is, the best you can do is the best you can do and you just hang on to the hope that you're doing alright by this little person you're trying to guide into the world.  There are the days that you wonder if you're screwing the whole thing up somehow, but I tell myself that if I never worried about it then that would be the sure the sign that I really was screwing it all up. 

It's an interesting frame of mind to be in as we march into Mother's Day, though.

In addition to my birthday and Mother's Day, this past week was also Star Wars day, which is a major holiday around this house. We made Wookie Cookies and watched Empire Strikes Back. While we watched, I plied some yarn, which I'm calling Cloud City. I rather like how it turned out, though I have no immediate plans for it. Can't carry it around the house with me forever, so I tucked it into the stash. There will be another time.