Um, hi. It’s me. Kate. Your long-lost food blogger friend. And guess what. It’s my birthday. The big 4-0. I am forty. It’s fine. I’m fine.
Actually, honestly, I really am. My thirties were a doozie of highs and lows. I’m not naïve enough to believe that will magically get better when I turn 40, kind of like I don’t think 2021 is just going to magically not be a dumpster fire of a year just because the clock changes. But. There’s something peaceful about a milestone that feels like it’s closure.
Because it’s my birthday and I get to do what I want, I’m giving away a box of my favorite things! Many of them are things I’ve talked about in recent posts, but instead of just telling you about them, I’m giving you them, too! In addition to everything here, I’ll throw in some of my favorite odds and ends. Excited? Mildly interested? I’ll take it.
2020 has been a year of redefining how I take care of my body. Getting my sensitive skin under control, embracing my natural wave/curls instead of fighting them, using more natural products, so this list includes a lot of those things.
- Like Stratia moisturizer. This is THE BEST moisturizer, especially daytime moisturizer, I’ve ever used. It’s lightweight, nourishing, soothing, and great for sensitive skin. It’s great during our humid summers and when my skin starts to dry out in the winter. I think very few face products are good for every skin type, but I think this is one that would probably be perfect for anyone regardless of age, race, skin type, skin sensitivities, etc. I. Love. It. I legitimately had a dream (no, nightmare) that I ran out of it and didn’t have a backup. ????
2. Yes, part of taking care of myself involves chocolate- and caramel-drizzled pretzel thins. I picked these up on a whim at the grocery store one day and now I have to get them every time I see them. They’re probably my favorite snack right now. These should go in every Christmas stocking this year, just saying.
3. This hand soap smells like Aveda products at a fraction of the cost and the green glass hand soap bottle is stunning. It’s a little luxurious comfort during this crazy year of hand-washing. If you use this link, you can get a free Mrs. Meyers cleaning kit–just look for the Jeremiah Brent collection.
4. If you had told me a year ago, I’d be giving away my favorite cloth face mask in a giveaway, I would have laughed at you. Alas, here we are. These masks come from my friend Candy’s Etsy shop and I’ve ordered a LOT of masks from her. They are double-sided, so you can have a little variety in your collection. They are soft, comfortable, breathable, and I always get compliments on them.
5. Sara was the one who converted me to Supergoop. It is THE BEST facial sunscreen ever. I have not always been great about wearing sunscreen, but once I learned that not wearing it was triggering my rosacea, I began wearing it religiously. I’m throwing a bottle of this into my birthday box!
6. This 10 in 1 spray for your hair is amazing–it reminds me a lot of It’s a 10 spray, but at a fraction of the cost (I have a bunch of Mane Club products and I love them all!)
7. I have been so in love with Sara’s wax melts! They’re low-commitment (I can melt one cube and then change my mind if I feel like it), easy to store, no smoke, I can melt them at school. I’m throwing in a Mulled Cider and Peppermint Icing!
8. I love this comb, which is also from Candy’s Etsy shop. I have this tortoiseshell one as well as her confetti comb and my whole family fights over them. It’s great for all hair types and would make an amazing stocking stuffer.
To enter, leave me a comment here and tell me a real moment you’ve had in 2020–happy, sad, something genuine that caught you off guard in the feels.
Happy birthday! Realizing that we get to be together more as a family- even though it means missing somethings, we finally got a chance to slow down and be purposeful. When will you post a winner?
Finally taking the plunge for my dream job after talking about it for years….I became a travel agent in February 2020 just for covid to hit a month later. Sigh
Wishing you a wonderful belated birthday!
My 9 year old daughter had the biggest meltdown the other night—screaming, yelling, the works. Finally she got out all her rage and starting to cry and said “I just want to be able to hug the people I love at school”. My kids seem so resilient, it was a humbling reminder that this year is very hard for them, though they hide it well.
Happy Birthday! Getting a moment to focus on me was the best part of the year!
When I realized there was a problem with the RV we had rented and the Black tank was completely melted two hours into our 3 weeks trip. And then I realized that I was blessed to catch the problem before it lit the 7 of us on fire!
The other day, my 9-year-old son hugged me and told me he loved me on his way out the door to school. He did it unprompted and without thinking about it, he just freely gave love. It made my day.
Oh 2020! I will skip all the lows and just mention one bright memory. We finally made it to the beach with family late this summer, and loved having it so empty because of covid. Lots of space to play and relax which rarely happens. And as a fellow mom in her now 40’s, I can honestly say that I love this stage of my life. Welcome to the club!
My son has severe asthma so we decided to homeschool all of our kids to keep him COVID free. A couple of months into homeschooling we found out he had a speech articulation disorder and has to go to the school for his speech therapy sessions. The one person we wanted to keep out of school, now goes once a week. ????2020 mood.
After trying for some time and a failed IUI, my husband and I learned in May that we are having a baby girl in January. ????
My family has had many ups and downs in 2020. The main down was my husband getting furlowed and forced into early retirement. It turned into a blessing however when my father in law passed away and he was able to spend more time with his mother. Our biggest up was the birth of a new unexpected grandbaby ❤️. We have seen many tender mercies this year. It has been a hard year but a very blessed one also.
My last baby called me “mama”. ????
Happy birthday! I’m coming up on 40 too. We (me, husband, and 4 boys) sold everything and took off in an RV to see the country for the past couple years. We were so done and heading to find a place to settle down again right when all this mess broke out and we’ve had a lot of wrenches thrown at us, so we are still stuck in the RV toughing out the winter at the top of the Idaho panhandle. The year started off with a horrible miscarriage and my dad getting remarried to my mom’s childhood best friend who he had an affair with when I was seven…… so it’s been a year of stretching and growing and love and forgiveness.
Happy Belated Birthday Kate ????! 2020 has been a year like no other (understatement). The sudden loss of my sister, without being able to physically be with her, was incredibly difficult to reconcile. The unexpected gift was finding a much needed opportunity for self-reflection and personal growth to seek the positives in people, experiences, and situations. Gratitude is the operative word as we close out 2020. Cheers to much peace and love in 2021 🙂
I have loved spending more time together with my kids now that they are teenagers. We have made dinner together and baked together. I have loved the slower pace where you can savor the moments.
Happy Birthday! 2020 has been a rollercoaster. A very “real” moment for me was experiencing an earthquake larger than any I’d ever experienced before and realizing my emergency kits were horribly out of date. They got updated very quickly!
We moved right in the middle of this year and let me just tell you – moving to a new town during a global pandemic is next level bad. My kids have been SO lonely and hardly met anybody. It is so sad. I’m hoping 2021 brings SOME better things!
My moment was watching my kids bond in April and May. Not being able to do anything with friends, plus getting a new trampoline, helped them rely on each other and find ways to have fun together. My 13 year-old and 10 year-old became good friends.
Happy Birthday! Surviving being in the hospital with twins both having RSV, right before the pandemic hit…thinking we did awesome getting through that only to have to homeschool the older kids a month and a half later. But now we’re just past the twins first birthday and I have 1 kid that got to go back to school part time. And that right there is wonderful.
Happy birthday to you!
My realization: my dog probably likes it when I’m not here and would be fine with me going back to the office.
Happy Birthday! I hope your year has gone better than mine has. 2020 has been filled with not great moments for me and my family. The year started out with my mom being diagnosed with breast cancer. The good news is she is out of the woods now and is cancer free!
It’s my son’s Senior year! He’s been quarantined twice (just from contact exposure) and missed the first week of basketball because the school went virtual and sprained his ankle the first week of practice. He qualified for State FFA sporting clay shooting event and was quarantined and couldnt’ go to that. Been a sad year, been trying to count blessings!
I’ve had some memorable moments in 2020 with hiking several new trails! It has helped me mentally and I know without the craziness of this year I wouldn’t have taken the time to do lots of these new trails. I also went backpacking for the 1st time.
This year has been hard on all my kids. They’ve had a hard time not being able to be with friends as much or have parties. As I try to comfort them, fill in as a “friend”, and keep their spirits up, I’m trying to battle my own disappointment as I miss my mom and sisters and friends as well. I am so grateful for my sweet kids though. Even as I type, I’m up with my 11-year-old who has a headache, and my 15 year old who is having a panic attack. Trying to be a support and help to them.
A moment from 2020 that stands out and will be something that, when I’m old and grey and my grandchildren ask me what it was like living in a world with Covid, I will tell them about the first time I went to the grocery store in March. Covid cases were just starting to be reported in our state, church had been canceled, and so I had hoped Sunday morning would be a quiet time at the store. Putting on a mask for the first time, shopping when I should be in church, and then seeing empty shelves where flour and yeast should be made me cry. Yes, I shed tears in the grocery store. Tears for what I had taken for granted and tears for the unknown. But through it all, God is good and we have been blessed.
This may seems silly but one of the very best things that happened for me in 2020 was that my 2 1/2 year old decided it was time to potty train and she was so easy to help! To me that is heaven sent! She hasn’t looked back since day one back in the spring and it has been such a tender mercy for me.
The upside-I’ve got lots of time to exercise and I’ve probably never been this consistent.
Downside-my former exercise of choice was martial arts and we aren’t making that happen yet.
Happy birthday! One moment for me this year was having cancer removed and my sister insisting to come help. One of those moments when you say you’re fine, but realize how much someone’s thoughtfulness helped.
2020 brought real joy (also a lot of other emotions). I finally had the opportunity to have all 11 of my children together. The youngest was born while 2 others were serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A daughter moved far away while another was serving so it took until 2020 to finally get them all together. Hooray for being together despite COVID.
Happy birthday! One of the (many) “real moments” I had this year was just recently when my 13 year old daughter had a little break-down after we told her that our governor put some more strict limitations of gathering in groups. She just wants to be able to have us come to her recitals. Sometimes I don’t realize how stressed my kids might actually be. I think they take it on the chin and adapt really well the majority of the time, but sometimes it just gets tough for them. I told her that it was ok to be disappointed and sad, I was too. For once I didn’t try to fix the problem (I’m a fixer) and just gave her a listening ear and a safe space to mourn a little. It taught me once again that it’s ok to mourn loss, no matter what that loss might look like. And it also taught me to see my kids more deeply, past the brave facade they might be putting on.