My Birthday & Ash Wednesday

Yep, today is my birthday and Ash Wednesday.  Which means a birthday filled with fasting (one meal) and abstaining from meat.  At first I was a little bummed about this (nothing but water and no cake - are you kidding me?!), but after reflecting on Lent I'm not bummed about it anymore.  Lent is about focusing deeply and solely on God and humility - not selfish things like whether or not I can have cake on my actual birthday.  I can celebrate my birthday tomorrow; it is more important that I focus on God as much as I can.  Jesus has made bigger sacrifices than I have made.  So, yeah, it isn't the most ideal day to share with one's birthday, but I'm not bummed about it.  :)  I actually really like Lent - the way it brings people together as a community and the way it connects us to God on a deeper level, is so immensely beautiful.  I am looking forward to growing spiritually this Lenten season. 

This morning, John had school, so when I woke up he wasn't here.  John had stuck a birthday card inside my laptop though and this morning when I opened it up to check my e-mail, it fell out.  He went with romantic for the Valentine's card and for this one, he went for fun.  :)  

The card itself said:

Laugh so hard that you go into silent laugh mode.

And you come dangerously close to falling out of your chair, but you don't.

Happy Birthday.

That Happy.

John wrote:

Dear Jessica,

You are the only person who makes me laugh that much.  

I love you more than anything else in the world.  

You are the cheese to my quesadilla. 

I hope you have a great birthday and I can't wait to be with you for your next 23 years.

Love,

Your Hubby

John, I love you too.  Even though you're a bit of a dork. ;)

Johnny was a little grumpy today, but he did tell me he loved me ("I 'ov oo") after a giggle-fest resulting from a certain little boy's stinky feet and mommy gagging from them (pretend gagging - they weren't really stinky).  :)  I love my little boy!

Since it was Ash Wednesday today, we could only have one actual meal and it had to be meatless.  We made a broccoli, cauliflower, and cheese soup in the slow cooker and some homemade french bread with Italian seasoning and Parmesan sprinkled on top before baking.  The soup was pretty good but the bread was delicious!  

The Parmesan French Bread we made (missing a huge chunk from the middle since we decided to eat before I thought to take a picture): 

 

(Seriously, it looked a lot yummier in person - my camera didn't really capture a good picture of it)

Tomorrow we will be going out to dinner and celebrating my birthday with some sort of dessert item, since we couldn't do any of that today.  Though it wasn't extremely exciting, it was a great birthday because I spent it with my two favorite guys.  :)  Wow, 23.  Seriously, I don't feel any different than 22...in fact, I don't think I've noticed any real difference between ages since 20?  I don't know.  I guess I'm getting old and all of that.  :)