{"id":1379,"date":"2013-05-27T08:42:16","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T14:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/?p=1379"},"modified":"2013-05-27T08:42:16","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T14:42:16","slug":"happy-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/?p=1379","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…to me\u00a0(cha cha cha)<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday to me (cha cha cha)<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday dear MEeeee!\u00a0 (cha cha cha)<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday to meeeeeeee! (cha cha cha!\u00a0 HI-YA!\u00a0 Funky Chicken, in the kitchen, with the pigeon, eating quail, looking quite pale, in jail, in a fridge, under a bridge…)<\/p>\n

Ok.\u00a0 You get the idea.<\/p>\n

Anyway – a while back, my little sister asked me what I would choose to have, if I could have any famous painting or sculpture in the world.\u00a0\u00a0I told her “Winged Victory.”<\/p>\n

Technically it’s the Winged Victory of Samothrace.\u00a0 It’s also called the Nike (Greek Goddess of Victory) of Samothrace.\u00a0 It sits in a place of prominence (as you come up the Daru staircase) in the Louvre museum in Paris, France.<\/p>\n

[See, Mom & Dad? That Bachelor’s Degree in French pays off EVERY time!<\/em>] <\/em><\/p>\n

Why would I want her for my very own??\u00a0 Winged Victory is considered a great masterpiece from the Hellenistic period and is one of the most famous sculptures in the world.\u00a0 She\u00a0shows a mastery of form and movement.\u00a0 Is she taking off?\u00a0 Is she landing??\u00a0 She moves forward with grace and strength; she does NOT skitter in on her belly the way the Hawk People do (Hot People – hee hee hee<\/a>).<\/p>\n

To me, she is utterly fantastic and powerful, despite having her block knocked off a millennium ago.\u00a0 And even though she’s missing her head (well, and her arms, but let’s not quibble), she is incredibly beautiful.<\/p>\n

Now, we all know it’s nigh-to-impossible to be a Greek Goddess of Victory by living a life filled with only sweetness and light.\u00a0 Instead, you can pretty much guarantee she’s had many hard-fought battles in her past.\u00a0 And her beauty has been forged in that fight.\u00a0 The fight…uhn, uhn…for her right…hunh, hunh…to paaaaaarrrrrTTYYY!!!\u00a0 (Boo-yah!\u00a0 Bonus points for bringing in the “80’s song for every moment of life” theory into my birthday blog about Winged Victory.\u00a0 Come on, Folks!\u00a0 You GOTTA give me some props for that one!)\u00a0 [snap, snap, snap<\/em>]<\/p>\n

The basis of her beauty?\u00a0 Her AGE and the life experiences that come with it.<\/p>\n

Does this mean that my 10-year-old daughter ISN’T beautiful because she’s so young?!\u00a0 No – that’s not what it\u00a0means\u00a0at all.\u00a0 She literally vibrates with energy and, with her big brown eyes and darling, unlined freckle-face, she is absolutely lovely in her youth.<\/p>\n

But it’s only when you’ve gotten your block knocked off a time or two – by an excruciating illness, the miscarriage of a baby, the loss of a really comfortable job, or any\u00a0number of life’s big and small hurts – yet with courage and fortitude, you raise yourself up to move forward again against the wind.\u00a0 That.\u00a0 THAT is beautiful.<\/p>\n

And that’s the kind of beauty that only comes if you’ve LIVED a little (or a lot…and\u00a0partied a little…or a LOT).\u00a0 So if you’re of a certain age.\u00a0 Stand proud.\u00a0 Say it out loud.\u00a0 Don’t try to hide your age.\u00a0 Because with age comes TRUE, well-fought, hard-won beauty.<\/p>\n

So, All the Beautiful People I Know….I’ll go first.\u00a0 I’m 45.\u00a0 Today.\u00a0 (cha cha cha!\u00a0 HI-YA!!!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…to me\u00a0(cha cha cha) Happy Birthday to me (cha cha cha) Happy Birthday dear MEeeee!\u00a0 (cha cha cha) Happy Birthday to meeeeeeee! (cha cha cha!\u00a0 HI-YA!\u00a0 Funky Chicken, in the kitchen, with the pigeon, eating quail, looking quite pale, in jail, in a fridge, under a bridge…) Ok.\u00a0 You get the idea. Anyway – a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1379"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1383,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions\/1383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}