Building Layers

Today is my birthday and I am one of those people who LOVE it when it is their birthday! I wake up feeling special, excited, and happy that this is the day that I celebrate my life. 

Birthdays are important... No other day do you celebrate your life, you being on this planet, the day that God placed his breath into your lungs.

I woke up this morning with pure peace and happiness. I am so thankful for the life that God has blessed me with. I thought about my husband, who I love more now than I did yesterday; my children who were entrusted to me; my parents who made me who I am; my sisters who I grew up with; my family and friends who have shaped me. Each and everyone of them make me smile and happy. I am so thankful for the people who helped guide me a strengthen me. 

I decided to make lasagna for tonight's Home Church and birthday dinner. While I was making the amazing deliciousness, I was hit with many memories from my childhood. Specifically, one of my mom making Lasagna.

 As an adult, I have alway gone with the quick "oven-ready" noodles, not the ones you have to boil then layer. Who has time for that? But, tonight, I wanted to do it differently.

 As I was draining the noodles and cooking the sauce, I visioned my Mama standing over her stove with her HUGE silver pot full of sauce and another HUGE pot of noodles. I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my two sisters or standing around the island waiting for her to start putting the layers together for her lasagna. We LOVED when Mama made lasagna! As soon as she would start putting the layers together, we would  watch for any fragment of broken noodle that we could swipe. Torn noodles were the prize on lasagna night!  As soon as one was spotted, it was snatched up.  The best part about Mama's lasagna wasn't the lasagna itself...although it is pretty darn good! It was being able to dunk your broken and torn noodle pieces into the left over sauce. I'm not sure why it tasted soooo dang good! It was like crack! We would eat like we were never going to eat anything else again, all this even though we know we are going to eat the whole lasagna in less than an  hour. But still we stood and waited for the torn pieces to dip in the pot of tomatoey heaven. 

As I created the layers on my lasagna tonight I found myself still looking for the torn pieces of noodles. I did save them and wish incredibly hard that I could share that with my two sisters and mom. I was not able to tonight, but I am so thankful that I have those memories. And just for them, I called Addison into the kitchen to share with her the best part of lasagna. 

Here's to you Mama! Thank you for teaching me to make lasagna, and most importantly... Building layers of memories!