Mom's Birthday Present

Date: May 8, 2013

Time: All Day

Location: My Home

Number: 14

Wednesday was my mom's birthday! She is such a special woman and I am proud of her just for being her honestly. She taught me at a very young age to be kind and to do good for others. 

Traveling Italy and Europe for 3 months drains your bank account. That being said, I had to be extra creative this year for her present. She told me just to make her a card, but I wanted to do at least a little bit more for her. 

I wanted to make her a cake to take to her work, but all we had in the house was muffin mix. I figured it's the thought that counts, so I made the muffins. I took them to work and we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She always makes a cake for everyone else's birthday, so I wanted to make sure she got one for hers. 

Before I went to the shop, I decided that her real gift would be a clean house. It cost me nothing and it is something I know she wants and needs. I know no one likes cleaning, but I really don't like it. While that's true, I knew it would make my mom happy, so I did it anyway. (Acts of kindness aren't always things you love doing. It's important to humble yourself and do the "hard" stuff or the stuff you don't like sometimes.) When I said I cleaned house, I meant it. I got down on my hands and knees scrubbing the baseboards and even cleaned the bathroom (my least favorite thing to do). You can see the full list of what I did for my mom's birthday in the photo below. It made her happy, so I was happy. 

I know y'all may be thinking, "Well it's her birthday, you had to do something," but that's not completely true. While I knew I was going to do something, I easily could have stopped at the card and the muffins. It would have been much easier just to buy a gift than to work on cleaning the house for a few hours, but I knew this was something that needed to be done and something she probably wouldn't expect. I'm counting as an Intentional Act of Kindness because cleaning is not something I'm not a big fan of doing, but I wanted to be kind to my mom on her birthday! 

Hebrews 13:16