![Hold Back the Dawn [DVD] Charles Boyer; Olivia de Havilland; Paulette Goddard](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AkExBJQsL._SL75_.jpg)
Friday's child
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 02:44PM 
I hate to open with a statement as hackneyed as this but I really cannot believe Erica Jean is twenty-five years old.
Our third baby girl was born at 2:04 a.m. on the Friday after Memorial Day in 1986.
Her twenty-fifth was the fourth time in Erica's life that her birthday fell on Memorial Day.
The other years were 1988, 1994, and 2005.
According to the well-known nursery rhyme, Friday's child is loving and giving.
Have you ever been curious enough to check the weekday of your birth against the poem?
Here's the poem:
Monday's child is fair of face;
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is full of woe;
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving;
Saturday's child works hard for his living.
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.*
*Meaning, happy and carefree. Sad I have to clarify, but that's where we are.
And here's a link to a nifty perpetual calendar. If you don't already know the weekday of your birth, take a mo and look it up.
Then, please tell me in the comments the day of the week you were born, and whether the qualities for that day correspond to your character traits.
Be truthful! I will know if you're trying to put one over on me.
I don't know how I'll know, but I'll know.
Because see, I have far to go! And so did my father (although he died at 37), and so does Henry (my mother's husband, who will be 79 in August).
We three were born on Thursdays.
Of TG's and my parents, our children, our son-in-law, and our grandchildren -- a grand total of fourteen souls -- six were born on Tuesdays.
They would be my mother-in-law, my late father-in-law, our daughters Stephanie and Audrey, and Stephanie's daughters Melanie and Allissa.
Full of grace, all. So far so good.
Andrew is our lone Wednesday-born. Full of woe? Sort of, but in a non-woeful way. It's difficult to explain; you'll have to take my word for it. But everyone who knows him and is reading this, is nodding and smiling.
My son-in-law Joel, the only one of us to appear in the world on a Monday, is definitely fair of face. He's quite lovely in character, personality, integrity, and Christian charity as well.
My mother, TG, and Erica represent Fridays. If you are acquainted with three more loving and giving people, I hope you will introduce me because it would be a privilege to know them.
No weekenders amongst us! But I do feel I should point out that Johnny Depp was born on a Sunday.
Enough said on that subject.
Naturally we feted Erica on Memorial Day -- her birthday indeed! -- and I made the executive decision that although we're all very appreciative of the military, our decorations would celebrate the birthday rather than the holiday.
No disrespect intended but I wanted springtime colors. There will be a purposeful patriotic profusion of red, white, and blue on Independence Day.
So the table was set in muted greens and purples -- Erica's favorite colors and thank you, Waverly, for the tableware -- plus a pink sparkly wicker bunny and pale green bird candles from the clearance table at TJ Maxx, plus glass-flower tealight holders from Dollar General.
I made barbecue. Rustic potato salad and a new recipe, Patriotic Frozen Delight, rounded out the menu.
We bought Ty Nant spring water in those stylish bottles, just because.
My mother brought an antique vase crammed with creamy gardenias from her garden.
TG had given me roses.
My two favorite flowers in one room. I was heady with the sight and smell of them.
It was a gorgeously warm summery day complete with azure sky and the fluffiest clouds.
The cake was from another new recipe, one I cadged from Robin Sue at Big Red Kitchen.
It looked like a giant teapot and yes, the handle and spout were hand-drawn by yours truly.
And yes! I am aware that Robin Sue's cake looked a whole lot better than mine. Step off! It was my first time to attempt anything so ambitious cake-decorating-wise.
It tasted delicious. How can you go wrong with angel food cake, whipped cream, and strawberries?
Just so you know, I couldn't find Whip It. I used cornstarch (one tablespoon per cup of heavy cream) to stabilize my whipped cream. Worked like a charm.
Among other things, for her birthday Erica received a Kodak Easy Share digital camera, a leather purse I bought for her in Chinatown when I was in New York, two framed pictures, a summer top, some nesting boxes, and a beautiful bracelet.
She appeared very pleased with all the loot thrown her way to celebrate her life at the quarter-century mark.
As it should be for one so dear.
Many more, much-loved little Boo!
Reader Comments (25)
I was born on Friday also, I had to use your link to find out.
All the food looks great, especially the cake.
Love your daughter's bracelet also.
Hi Jenny,
I am Tuesday's child. Not sure if I fit the description, but it would be nice! I love your site. It is just beautiful. You have quite a talent.
@Debbie ... not surprised at all that you fall under the "loving and giving" category!
@Ginger ... Ginger from iOTW? What an honor to have you here! The voice of reason, as it were. Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words!
Monday's child - I'm trying hard to keep up with the description - using lots of SPF45! Had fun using the calendar to identify all my family's birth days. We're heavy on Thursdays!
@Sydney ... you're nothing if not fair of face! And beautiful in so many other ways too. Hope you're having a good week!
I look forward to your daughter being brought up under the Democrats, starting with another term for our great leader Barack.
In time he (not Muslim as your kind postulate, but atheist), and his successors will rid our world of the scourge of ALL religions, including your worship of the lunatic dead for 2000 years jesus.
Have a nice day in your dreamworld.
@Daniel ... someone's living in a dream world, but it's not me. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And that means your Dear Leader, and that means you.
**rude, blasphemous comment deleted and its author banned from this Web site**
The above is very upsetting.
How could someone be so horrible to Jesus ?
@Mary ... I think it's because they know Jesus is alive, and that they will stand before Him someday. It drives them crazy ... or more to the point, it drives their demons crazy. By the way, welcome to IHATH. It's not usually like this in the comments section.
Still here
@Daniel ... I see that. Just so you know, you have freedom of speech on my Web site as long as you follow a few ground rules. The first one is, no profanity. If you cannot express yourself without crude language, then you're not welcome here. The second is, stay on topic. The topic of the post was and is not whether Jesus is alive. The topic is my daughter's birthday party. I don't think you have the slightest interest in that, but if you want to comment (even in a derogatory way) on that subject, feel free as long as you keep it clean. And there's no need to insult any member of my family. Say what you like about me (as long as you keep it clean) but leave my family alone. Besides, don't you have anything better to do on a summer evening in Manchester? Running from IP to IP in order to say wicked things about someone you don't even know? But again: you're welcome here as long as you follow the rules.
Wicked things ?
Pales into insignificance to the crusades for example.
And I'm not in Manchester, IP tracing isn't that accurate.
@Daniel ... Yes ... I said "wicked things" and that's what I meant. Again however, you're off-topic. But thanks for keeping it clean. And sir, wherever you are in the UK doesn't matter to me. Your multiplicity of IPs put you all around Manchester, but the actual place doesn't matter. By the way, I had nothing to do with the Crusades and neither did you, so I'm not sure what you're going for there. Let's at least stay in the current century.
You may have had nothing to do with them but your ilk did.
There are numerous examples of religious attrocities in this century (including christian).
And the kid reciting the bible looks like it's going to grow into another godbot.
Let's hope it goes to a good college and gets a proper non-religious education.
You'll be pleased to know I'm bored now.
To your credit you're not as easily riled as some of the people over at right truth especially RJ
@Daniel ... I'm not pleased to know you're bored but if you are, so be it. I actually enjoy discussion as long as it's kept on an even keel and is reasonably civil, with no profanity. As for RJ, he's a Catholic so maybe he's the one to engage in dialog about the Crusades. And as for "my ilk" (I am a Baptist), we have never as a group committed religious atrocities. Any perusal of world, church, and American history, no matter how cursory, will bear out the truth of that statement. Has much evil been done in the name of God throughout human history? Certainly. You will not, however, find a substantiated instance of Baptists as a group torturing and killing others in the name of God. Be that as it may, I repeat that you are welcome here -- even if only to disagree -- as long as you stay on topic (which seems to be a recurring problem) and keep it clean.
Well I'm a Monday baby, not sure if I'm fair of face, I think I'm fair. YOur cake looks wonderful, how clever. Your are most certainly loving and giving. Just to let you know my extremely rude interview is a tool I use for writing, for character development. It quite intense and answers most readers questions about the character.
Hoo, stroppy little fellow, that Daniel. I'm am always amazed at how rude and nasty liberals tend to be when they are comfortably anonymous. Well handled, Jenny dear.
Funny, but I did a post on this subject (birthdays, not nasty liberals) a while ago, right down to the perpetual calendar. I am a Saturday girl through and through.
Also funny, but peculiar, not ha ha, your blog didn't update on my blog list, which is why it took me so long to get here.
Toodle-oo.
Oh my gosh! I was so busy fiddling with the calendar forgot to wish your beauty a VERY Happy Birthday. She`s gorgeous. How do you feel about her being 25( I know there should be a question mark here, but my funny key board is giving me something French). Love Ya.
This is weird - I see you posted this on Tuesday, but it just now appeared in my Google reader.
Anyway - Happy Birthday to your beautiful Erica! Our Heather is a Friday baby as well and it fits her. I was a Thursday baby like you (it was actually Thanksgiving) and yes, I did have far to go.
I also enjoyed checking out other members of the family!
Happy Birthday to your lovely daughter.
Very pretty post.
I think I was born on a Friday, but always have thought that Friday didn't have a "good line" in that poem. ,-) So, it fit. ,-)
~♥~
Happy Birthday to Erica!!!! Love the gifts and cake....
Thursday....yes, Thursday....Is it 'gonna be much further????Hahahaaa
PS-You Are Good....
hughugs
This was such a lovely post with great pictures to display how great Erica and her birthday was/is! I love the blurriness of these photos. And of course the scanned photo of Erica as a baby is just priceless.
..oh, btw, loved reading how you dealt with Daniel... couldn't have said it nearly as good as you did.
According to my birth certificate (and the perpetual calendar) I was born on Tuesday. All I can say is "Somebody's lying!" There isn't a graceful bone in my body; although my birth parents did name me Grace.
Does that count?