Whew. It's Mother's Day, May 9, 2010, and I am tired to the bone. It's Buddy's 40th birthday tomorrow, so we had a barbecue for the whole family to get together, to celebrate the day with him, and to give everyone a chance to see their mother, grandmother, whatever. I think it was fun. We counted 22 people, who went through 38 gourmet hamburgers and about 20 pounds of salads.

How lucky am I. Among the crowd, my mother was here. My sister was here. My daughter was here. Three granddaughters were here. So we had four generations all sitting together sharing a meal and enjoying the day. Sometimes our greatest blessings are right there in front of our faces, and we just forget to be grateful. We do ourselves a huge disservice by taking things like that for granted.

Also met my son's girlfriend and her son for the first time today. And my niece's boyfriend's Mom came too. How blessed are we? And my nephew's family was all here.

And of course, my big birthday boy. Buddy. 40 years old. Wow. I don't know where the years went.

Thank you God for the blessings in my life. Amen.