Birthday Gifts for Me

My birthday gifts: unexpected, but happy:

1) I lost my comb weeks ago, when the RV drove away. I searched everywhere, under the bathmats, in bags and in cupboards. I have managed with finger-combing, but I did think, while preparing to bathe Joe, "I would like a comb for my birthday." And I glanced down and there, in plain view, was my comb, in plain view on the carpet. How could that be?

2) Phil did a dump run yesterday. A very full truck load later, I no longer feel like our farm is a garbage dump, or a constipated piece of land. Relief!

3) Phil also went far away to Lowe's to get the material for our mini greenhouse, only to have them out of an important item. He drove to a second Lowe's, and bought all the needed materials, so we wouldn't have to spend a long time in the car after church today, on my birthday. He spent four hours running errands instead. (Bless him. Isaiah went with him, and on his return, he said, "Guess how many times I had to go to the bathroom? Less than ten." The actual number was only four, but still!)

4) A call to fervent prayer for a specific need.

5) Looking in a box in storage to find a lecture series on poetry (fun!) and several agriculture lectures I hadn't heard already. Awesome!

6) Phil singing happy birthday, while the boys listen in silence. Maybe I need to include music as a subject in schooltime?

7) An eye almost all the way better. I went to church and only felt a bit self-conscious about a slightly droopy eyelid.