Tuesday, May 30, 2006

What To Do...

It's somebody's first 32nd birthday next Monday and I don't know what to do. When someone you know is celebrating 32 years it just seems like you have to do something special. Unique. Extraordinary. You know, nice. I think I have too many good possibilities to pursue so it's making it hard for me to decide on which plan of action to go with.

I really do have it made though. I even have a live-in babysitter which makes it easy to leave and come home whenever we please and know the kids' schedule won't be in an upheaval meanwhile. They probably won't even notice I'm gone because they're babysitter keeps things running so smooth.

I have the prospect of extra income from a tenative garage sale planned in 2 weeks. (Maybe I'm counting my chicks before they hatch on this one though...)

I have a great reason to celebrate with a "get-a-way" since it's somebody's birthday.

I have the advantage of a beautiful time of year to enjoy and be blessed in the beauty of God's world AND enjoy some quiet and alone time with the companion God has blessed me with while I live on His beautiful earth.

I have so many good ideas to try and places to go and so I know that since I'm overwhelmed with so many creative thoughts, that must mean it's definitely a "go" that I should go head over heels in plans.

But, then I think of the checkbook... and then the checklist of work my husband has to get done on our house in the next couple weeks... and then I remember the checkbook again... and what my husband said about his idea of not doing anything for his birthday... which reminds me of the checkbook yet again... and why Toby didn't want to do anything... and I remember that he can't enjoy doing something if it costs needlessly out of our checkbook... which reminds me yet again of the annoying checkbook.

So I try to think of what would be cheap:

A tent in our back yard.

Oatmeal for supper instead of Olive Garden.

A candelight dinner on our porch (but with bugs of course. Bad idea.)

Breakfast in bed. (I'll have to wake up and creep out of the room before him and make breakfast and get it back to our room before he's awake. Unlikely to happen unless I hide cold cereal under the bed and keep a cooler of milk in the closet.)

Maybe we could go camping with his family's camper. (If only Toby liked camping better than he does... but maybe this could be a plan though... It would be cheap, quiet and a get-a-way.)

A picnic.

A bike ride.

A walk.

All these things are cheap but none are prompting me to run and pencil them into my weekly planner.

Since it's not like everyday that you get to celebrate a birthday with someone special (much less a 32nd birthday), I really want to plan something nice. After living long enough with this man I call my husband, I know that doing something like a get-a-way is easier for me to give him for his birthday than getting him something like a gift wrapped in pretty paper and topped with a fancy bow. He is so hard to buy things for.

What to do...

It sure would be easier to plan my own birthday then I could just say we didn't have to do anything at all. Hmmm, maybe that's why he keeps saying we don't have to do anything. Maybe paying for something is a lot like planning for something.

When we conversed together over our options for his birthday, Toby reminded me that since it was his birthday, we should do what he wanted to do. And then he said, "The thing I want to do, is nothing at all."

I'm wondering though, do you always give something to somebody that they want for their birthday? Especially when that something they want is nothing at all? Do you then just give them something they don't want?

Then I think, what if I go ahead and make him do something for his birthday that I know he doesn't want to do, how would I feel if he then did nothing for my birthday since he knows I would want to do something? Is it the same difference, I wonder.

What to do, what to do...

32nd birthdays are so complicated.