Refresh. Regrow. Renew.

Life can be so complicated at times making you feel like you want to crawl under a rock and wish for the less stressful days of watching fairies flutter in the wind, seeing unicorns gracefully drink from a nearby stream and standing in awe of mighty dragons flying high in the sky. Sadly, we must grow up and deal with the crap. My crap this past week were bugs. Not the creepy, crawly kind, but the evil, vicious kind that crawl into the bodies of my sweet babies and make them terribly sick. We had ear infections, sinus infections, headaches, fever, constipation, vomit, missed parties and two complaining, miserable kids over the course of ten days. Ten days at home. Ten days of whining. Ten days without adult conversation. All of this with my birthday approaching. The last few years have been cruel ones for my birthday and this year wasn't looking very good. That's when I decided to make the best of this terrible situation. So I packed up some books, lunch, blankets and headed for the nearby lake. As expected, no one was here to infect so we were able to play without worry. Tiffany was overjoyed as she walked through the water collecting rocks and shells to take home and Benny had fun taking Tiffany's collections and throwing them back into the lake. Boys will be boys. When it was time to go, everyone was worn out and ready to lay down and watch a movie. It was a great time and just what we needed. They still had their fever and Benny started throwing up later that day, but at least it was a great start to my birthday. It should be noted that for this year, my birthday will be celebrated on the 15th when my husband is home and no one is throwing up, hopefully!