This coming week, I celebrate three milestones. It’s our 30th wedding anniversary, my 60th birthday, and my 5th “blogiversary”. This, combined with my recent retirement, has me thinking about the different ways of celebrating milestones.
Welcome to the 72nd edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. In addition to celebrating milestones, this week I look at Australia’s takeout coffee cup ban, paperback books, and night table decluttering.
Warning: This post contains old pictures that may case bouts of nostalgia!
![Pinterest optimized image - The Sunday Spark newspaper clipping showing headlines: Celebrating milestones, Western Australia bans single-use takeout cups, Night table decluttering.](https://i0.wp.com/boomerecocrusader.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/The-Sunday-Spark-Volume-72.jpg?resize=640%2C960&ssl=1)
On my mind this week: Celebrating milestones
2024 has been a year of milestones for me. At the end of June, I moved on to a new chapter after a long career in the retirement business. This coming week, I celebrate three more important events in my life. It’s our 30th wedding anniversary, my 60th birthday, and my 5th “blogiversary”.
Reflecting on these events prompted me to look up the word milestone in my Collins Canadian Dictionary. The dictionary defines milestone as a “stone marker showing the distance to a certain place” or a “significant event”. It’s interesting that the first definition looks forward and recognizes the milestone as a step in a journey that’s still in progress, whereas the second has a tone of recognizing something that has already happened.
How do you celebrate milestone birthdays or anniversaries? I’m always interested to see how people mark these significant events in their lives. Some people go all out, renting banquet halls or fancy hotels, and throwing extravagant parties. If that’s your thing and you enjoy being the centre of attention, more power to you! Personally, I prefer a little less fuss.
My milestone birthdays
The first big birthday celebration I remember is my 21st. My grandmother took family and friends out for dinner at her favourite Chinese restaurant, the Tien Sun. Then we had a party at my parents’ house. But one of my vivid memories of July 13, 1985 is watching Live Aid, one of the biggest concerts in history.
![Michelle cutting her 21st birthday cake.](https://i0.wp.com/boomerecocrusader.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Michelle-21st-birthday-19850713.jpg?resize=640%2C804&ssl=1)
Fast forward nine years to my 30th birthday. I thought I’d come up with the perfect solution to avoid drawing attention to my birthday by planning our wedding for four days before the big day. After all, we’d be on our honeymoon on the actual day. It turns out I was wrong. When we got back to our house after the wedding ceremony, my friends had installed 30 pink flamingos on the front lawn.
![Bride and group surrounded by friends, balloons and pink flamingos.](https://i0.wp.com/boomerecocrusader.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_20240706_0001.jpg?resize=640%2C431&ssl=1)
When I turned 40, we did have a party at my in-laws’ farm. I’m not sure how that happened. It was fun but definitely not the type of celebration I usually go for.
![Michelle's 40th birthday cake.](https://i0.wp.com/boomerecocrusader.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2004_0717028.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1)
For my 50th birthday, I decided to avoid the fuss by booking a trip to England, Wales and France. On my birthday, my sister and brother-in-law treated me and the girls to a lovely lunch at their favourite Italian restaurant. We were joined by my nephew and his partner. It was just the type of low-key celebration I enjoy.
![Celebrating my 50th birthday.](https://i0.wp.com/boomerecocrusader.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_2166.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1)
And anniversaries
We had a small wedding with under 50 guests, so I can’t imagine throwing a bigger party to celebrate any milestone anniversary.
For our 10th anniversary, my mum stayed with our daughters while we went away for an overnight stay at a resort in Goderich on Lake Huron. For our 25th anniversary, my husband and I went out for quiet dinner. We did plan a trip to Hawaii for the following year but that was 2020 and we all know what happened then.
My plans for this week
As you might expect, we’ll mark this week’s milestones with similar low-key celebrations. But that doesn’t mean these milestones aren’t special. As a cancer survivor, I know that each birthday and anniversary is a gift to be treasured.
Looking at these old photos was a fun trip down memory lane but, as I celebrate the past this week, I’ll continue to embrace the forward-looking spirit of that first dictionary definition.
The next chapter in the story is just beginning….
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- One of the nicest things about my first week of retirement was having more time to sit on the deck and watch the activity around our bird feeders. Regular visitors include bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and even skunks. The highlight this week, though, was spotting a baby cardinal enjoying a snack at the feeder. I love that we have a family of cardinals living in our back garden to remind us of loved ones who have left us.
- We had rotisserie chicken from Costco for dinner the other night and I used the chicken carcass to make a pot of soup. It was delicious.
- On Friday, my sister Lorraine came over and we had a lovely visit and catch up on the deck.
![Cardinals at a bird feeder. Pot of chicken vegetable soup.](https://i0.wp.com/boomerecocrusader.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Weekly-Highlights-June-28-July-5-2024.png?resize=640%2C427&ssl=1)
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are some nuggets I picked up this week:
Western Australia bans single-use coffee cups
As a Canadian, I’m always dismayed at the sight of those iconic red Tim Horton’s coffee cups strewn about the landscape. Takeout coffee is big business, but it generates a lot of waste. Considering our municipal recycling program accepts these cups, it doesn’t take much effort to dispose of them in a responsible manner.
This week, I learned that Western Australia has banned single-use coffee cups made out of non-compostable material. Coffee shops can sell compostable cardboard cups as long as the lids are made from either paper or a by-product of sugarcane called bagasse. Sorry Tim’s, but I think Canada needs to follow suit.
(Source: Happy Eco News)
Paperback books have a long history
When you think of old books, an image of an ornate leather-bound hardcover likely leaps to mind. I was surprised to learn this week when researching an upcoming blog post that paperback books have been around since the 1800s.
(Source: Days of the Year)
This week’s decluttering challenge – Night table drawers
In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. This week’s challenge was cleaning out my night table drawers. Although this time wasn’t as lucrative as the time I found $250 tucked away in an envelope in a drawer, I did manage to declutter 10 items. You can find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.
If you’d like to join the challenge, visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
Have some wonderful celebrations for your milestones. It’s important that we mark these events, but in ways that are meaningful to us and we’re comfortable with. It must feel intense having your big birthday and anniversary close together … but we should celebrate every one.
I’m with you on the single use cups. I’d need to check, but I think there may have been something here about making the cups recyclable … not sure about the lids though. I do know, however, that our works canteen uses compostable material for takeaway boxes, cutlery etc
Thanks Brenda. I agree that every milestone is something to celebrate. Have a wonderful week ahead!
You too. I love your weekly roundup newsletter … such a brilliant idea
Wow – 60, 30 and 5! Big milestones and celebrations. Love your pictures from over the years. How fun! I hope you enjoy your week!
Thanks Wynne. It was fun to look through the old pictures. So many memories. I hope you have a good week, too!
Wow! Happy everything, and I hope you enjoy each of the milestones to their fullest! 🙂
Thanks Erin! I will give it my best shot. 😂
Happy EVERYTHING Michelle! I loved looking at the photos – thank you for sharing with us. Milestones matter…enjoy every moment! (And P.S. I recognize that green floral flocked 70’s wallpaper…very familiar…once upon a time!) 🥰
Thanks Vicki. Oh, yes…the green was everywhere in our house. It must be my mum’s Irish heritage. We even had the avocado green appliances. 🤮
Have a terrific week, my friend! 🤗
🥰☀️🥰
Happy All-the-Things Michelle!!! July is a major month for you 🙂 I’m glad you’re taking some time to simply be, and take in life around you. Enjoy your birds!
Thanks Deb. I’m really enjoying all the wildlife in our back garden. The skunks I could do without but they keep their distance. 🦨
I took my friends to Paris for my fortieth. I plan something similar when I turn 50. Have a lovely week of celebrations.
Thanks Jamie. That sounds like a nice way to celebrate. The hardest part for me right now is getting used to our daughters not being with us to celebrate these things. I’ll get used to it!
What a full week of happy milestones! Congratulations!
Thank you so much!
Wow!!! Happy Birthday, Anniversary, and Blogversary! Some major milestones. I’m hope you thoroughly enjoy!
Thanks Monty! Yes, my family seems to like clustering all our celebrations together. In May, we have Mother’s Day, our younger daughter’s birthday, and my husband’s birthday all in the same week.
My birthday and anniversary are back to back in April. Life seems to work out that way.