As Dolly Pardon once said, "Here you come again!" It's my birthday month AGAIN. Seems like I just celebrated my birthday a few days ago. Time flies like a fruit fly around a peeled banana, so fast.
I remember as a youngster I could not wait to be 6 and go to school. Comes back to me how I hated school and took every opportunity to runaway. Then I wanted to be 13, a teenager. Can't remember anything changing for me other than my age. Then to be 18 and be a grown up. Ha, I was married at the ripe old age of seventeen and I was still not a grown up. Then to graduate school and be in the workforce. Really?? Oh then to be 21. I could buy alcohol legally except I didn't drink alcohol at that time in my life, so no real change here either.
I have lived, though vicariously, through my children growing into adults and comparing them to my growing up. They too, could not wait to hit the milestones that would ensure their maturity, they believed. All three graduated high school and went off to college for four years, or more and came home still as children trying to grow wings for adulthood. Through the years they have fully developed into astute, intelligent adults. But, this did not happen fast or as in a whirlwind. It happened at a slow and steady speed as it should.
Why are our youth in so much haste to be grown ups? I have a grandson that is repeatedly saying to us as we tell him he can or cannot do something, "But I'm eighteen, legal age." Well, thankfully Mississippi is the only state in the nation that has it's age of maturity set at 21. So, being the wise and sage grandparent that I am I tell him as long as he lives in Mississippi I'm going to play that card.
With this birthday looming in my vision, the nineteenth of this month, I will readily tell you I AM BLESSED! So many of my long-time friends have already gone Home and here I am still living out loud. I give praise everyday for this privilege. My special day is always so close to my other day, Mother's Day, that we celebrate both at the same time. I will be #$%& years old and a mother for nearly 54 years. How blessed is that?
So, you youngsters, mine and all yours, please slow down and enjoy your youth before you HAVE to adult.
This is the recipe I make for my own birthday cake:
1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 cup butter, 4 large eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 2 3/4 cup self rising flour, 1 cup whole buttermilk. Beat all together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Pour into two sprayed and floured cake pans and bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Frosting: 2 cups melted butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 2 tablespoons half and half, rainbow sprinkles. Mix all except sprinkles, in a bowl of electric mixer until fluffy and smooth. Spread on cooled cake and shake rainbow sprinkles top.
