Celebrate It

In this heartfelt episode of Mom Life in the Woods, Karen reflects on birthdays, graduations, family traditions, and the simple ways we can make ordinary days feel special. From balloons in the kitchen to cookie cakes for the first day of Summer Break, this episode is an encouragement to celebrate the moments that make up a beautiful life. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey friends, welcome back to Mom Life in the Woods. I am so glad you are here today. I've been on hiatus a couple of weeks because life has been lifing, guys. So this episode is gonna feel a little bit reflective and a little nostalgic, hopefully encouraging because lately I've been thinking a lot about celebrations. My oldest daughter, no, my second oldest daughter, just graduated from high school, which feels kind of surreal just saying it out loud. And we have also celebrated three birthdays in our family over the past several weeks. So our home has been full of treats and flowers and all the emotions that come with watching your family grow up. And I recently started thinking about what it means to celebrate. Obviously, not in a flashy way, a Pinterest perfect party kind of way, but in a meaningful, everyday life kind of way. When I was growing up, I remember celebrating birthdays when I was little. I remember the cakes and the presents, the cakes, my mom would make them and she would put those little hard candy letters on them. I used to love those cakes. I remember those sweet childhood moments, but as I got older, maybe around the preteen years, I honestly don't remember celebrating much. Maybe I may have taken it upon myself to ask my mom, hey, can so-and-so spend the night? Had a little girlfriend spend the night from time to time for my birthday, but I don't remember really celebrating. And let me just clearly say, I never felt neglected. I had loving parents. I still do have loving parents. I knew I was cared for. I just don't remember birthdays becoming a big thing anymore as we got older. It was more like happy birthday. And then life continued on. And then many years later, I was dating my husband, and we went to visit his mom in New Orleans. It was around the time, I think it was around the time of his sister's birthday. I remember walking into the kitchen and seeing his mom hanging up a happy birthday banner. One of the, you know, the banners that just say happy birthday. You kind of hang it cat at corner in the um in a corner. And I remember thinking, oh, are we having a party? But the funny thing is, there wasn't a party. There wasn't a giant event. There wasn't even an event at all planned. There weren't people coming over. It was simply that she had taken the time to make the house feel festive. The kitchen looked happy, just that little happy birthday banner. And the day felt acknowledged. And for some reason, that moment stayed with me. It really struck me. Such a small thing, but it communicated something really beautiful. This day matters because you matter. And when I became a mom, I decided I wanted birthdays in our home to feel just like that. So for my daughter's first birthday and since, we have been um making the day special. Now, my kids have had birthday parties over the years. We've done the bounce houses, the theme cakes, the sleepovers, the go to my gym and celebrate. But as they've gotten older, what they've probably loved most is the decorating tradition. For almost 20 years, I decorated our kitchen for birthdays. We would hang the banners and the balloons and sometimes the streamers. We would decorate the table. Um, we would have plastic tablecloth, we would have the confetti. Sometimes there'd be the little gifts sitting there, the favorite snacks of the honoree, special breakfast foods in the morning. It wasn't necessarily extravagant, but it transformed an ordinary morning into something special. The kids would wake up, walk into the kitchen, and immediately know today is different. And if it was your birthday, you were looking forward to it. You loved it. But last year, after doing it for two decades, guys, I got tired. And I think a lot of moms will understand this feeling. I realized that I was usually the one staying up late, blowing up balloons, taping streamers to the cabinets. I I had some help every now and then from the kids and my husband, but usually it was mom who was getting everything, making sure everything was put together. Not to mention that two of my girls have back-to-back birthdays, one on the 24th, one on the 25th. So I would have to wait until late, everybody sleep. Then I would take down the old, and then after we've already had a day full of celebrating, I would have to stay up, take down the old, and then put up the new. And I was the one trying to make magic happen while everybody else was asleep. And eventually I just felt worn out. So I announced last year, at the beginning of last year, I said, you know what? We're retiring the decorations. I'm going to get everybody just a little balloon bouquet for their birthday. But this decorating the kitchen tradition, we've had a good run, but I think we're done. And I thought we were done. But then just recently on Mother's Day, I woke up and walked into the kitchen, and my husband had decorated it for me. It was festive, it was sweet, it was thoughtful, it was turquoise and white. I loved it. It very honestly caught me off guard emotionally because in that moment I realized maybe what I had created over the years had mattered more than I thought it did. Those silly blooms, banners, they had become part of the emotional fabric of our family. And maybe, just maybe, we're not done after all. Lately, I've talked to several women and I've asked them what their birthdays looked like growing up or even now as adults. And for a lot of them, the answer was basically not much. Maybe someone said happy birthday, maybe there's a text message, maybe there was dinner. But for a lot of people, there is not much intentional celebration. And a lot of times the people that I have been speaking with, they say, Well, I just I don't want to do anything. I I just want to put my feet up. And I remember feeling that and and verbalizing that before. I'm like, if I can relax, that's celebration enough for me. And I understand, I mean, as we age, we sometimes start acting like birthdays don't matter anymore. We downplay them, we say things like, oh, it's just another day, or I don't need anything. And again, I get not wanting a giant production, not wanting attention, but I have also come to know that there is something deeply human about wanting to feel acknowledged and celebrated and wanting to just make it special because look, we only get one short life, and part of what makes life beautiful are the moments that break up the ordinary. Every day is gonna look the same if you don't have milestones that you're acknowledging, the moments that remind us to stop rushing, the moments that invite us to gather, the moments that say, This matters, it's your birthday. No, we're not just gonna the kids are gonna play hooky from school today. It's your birthday. We're gonna go do this or that, and heck yes, we're gonna decorate. We are gonna go do something fun. I know there are people who criticize holidays and celebrations. They say it's all commercialized, the businesses just want us to spend money. And yes, sometimes things can become over the top. Man, I remember going into the grocery store for Valentine's Day, and I was like, these blooms everywhere, not just in the bloom section, but all throughout produce, all throughout the checkout lane. Blooms, blooms, blooms, flowers, flowers, very consumer-driven. But I think celebration is just one of the ways we bring beauty and rhythm into life. Without special occasions, so many days would simply blur together. I mean, if there were no birthday cakes, no Christmas lights, graduation ceremonies, anniversary dinners, no traditions, the first day of school photos, the little moments marked as meaningful, life would start to feel flat. And I know that that's not what life is about, but celebrations help us mark time, they help us remember, they help us pause long enough to actually feel our lives when we're living them. Now, I'm not saying we need to celebrate every single novelty holiday that pops up online. I mean, come on, honestly, there's like national pinky toe day and national pickle appreciation day. I mean, at some point, we just have to calm down. I do think families should intentionally decide what matters to them. What traditions do you want your children to remember? What moments deserve to feel special? Could be birthdays, maybe it's the first day of summer, it's family movie nights, it's Christmas Eve, breakfast casseroles, Halloween chili dogs, that's my thing, or pancakes on the first cold day of fall. These things become anchors in family life. One year, we we're homeschooling family, and one year I surprised my girls with a cookie cake. It said, Happy spring break. Now, a cake for the first day of spring break? That was kind of odd because we do cakes, but spring break? No, it I needed to celebrate. We ordered pizza, we rented a hotel room, we were on the Woodlands Water. No, we were in Hughes Landing at the Embassy Suites. We invited some friends, watched a movie, and we kicked off spring break with this tiny little celebration. And I remember that spring break more vividly than many of the others. Not because we traveled somewhere extravagantly, because we didn't. It wasn't wildly different from the other spring breaks, but we acknowledged it. We paused long enough to make it feel meaningful. And that's what celebration is. It's intentional acknowledgement. It's saying this day is worth noticing. And I guess that's what I want to encourage today. Instead of waiting for life to feel magical on its own, maybe we create some of that magic ourselves. And I say magic, I just gotta, I just gotta say, I I know I use magic from time to time. I need to make it clear that when I say magic, I'm not talking about the occult magic or anything like that. I just I'm just talking about those special things that just seem um really, really memorable and special. And I don't even know. See, the magic is the word, but I I I need to make it clear that um I'm not talking about that kind of magic. So I I don't know why. I just felt like I needed to share that. But maybe the practical thing to do is simply look ahead at what's coming next and say, how can I make this special? Not expensive or exhausting, just meaningful. It could be balloons from the dollar store or your child's favorite meal, lighting candles at dinner on the last day of school. Last day of school is coming up, lighting candles at dinner, inviting neighbors over for watermelon and sparklers for the 4th of July. Maybe it's fresh flowers on the table for Friday, or no reason other than everyone needs beauty sometimes. And here's another thought. The celebration doesn't even need to be for your own family. There could be somebody around you who isn't used to being celebrated. A widow, an elderly neighbor or family member, a single adult, a college student far from home, a tired mom who spends all of her energy making life special for someone else. Maybe you can become the person who brings the balloons and hey, I'm gonna make this special for you. I know that person who would typically make it special, maybe they've passed away, or your grown children are living in a different state. But I wanted to drop by and just celebrate you today. You drop off flowers. Maybe you remember their birthday when nobody else does. You bring the cupcakes to the person who just got a new job or who just finished chemotherapy or the family that just adopted a baby or survived a really difficult year because celebrations they don't really have to be loud. Sometimes it's just noticing people and just taking a moment to making it kind of special. That's one of the most beautiful gifts we can give to notice someone pause long enough to say, I see you. Your life matters, and this moment matters. As I watched my daughter graduate recently, I've realized that so much of parenting is really about this very thing. We spend years marking moments, first tooth that you lose, first bike ride, dance recital, birthdays, prom, graduation. And then one day you realize those little celebrations become the memories. And it's not necessarily the expensive gifts or the perfectly planned events, but the feeling, the warmth, the effort, the togetherness. It's the knowing that someone cared enough to make the day feel different. So today I want to encourage you to lean into celebration a little more. If you're one of those moms who and you're like, eh, I could take it or leave it. We don't really do much, we don't have to do much. We just enjoy our little day, um, just you know, hanging out, and that's perfectly fine. But lean into it a little bit more and don't wait for permission, don't worry if it feels silly. Hang the banner, buy the balloons, bake the cake, light the candles, celebrate the first day of summer break, or the last soccer game, or the new apartment, or the answered prayer, or simply making it through a hard season because ordinary life becomes extraordinary when we stop long enough to honor it. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me here on Mom Life in the Woods. And whatever season you're in right now, I hope you find a reason to celebrate it.