Birthday

Today is my birthday.

Everyone is feeling fine now. I think I had the stomach virus Thursday night/Friday morning, but I just mostly felt bad--I wasn't nearly as sick as the kids got. Nobody was sick for more than 24 hours, which was nice--if you HAVE to have a stomach flu, let it be the short-lived kind.

DH got half the day off Friday, so we got in and really got a lot done at decluttering and organizing the house. Today the cleaner is supposed to come look at the house, give us an estimate, and schedule the first appointment. He was supposed to be here about 15 minutes ago, so hopefully he'll be here soon.

Even without the cleaner, I told DH that all his work the last few weeks helping work toward getting the house under control is the best birthday gift I could have asked for. Now that meals, Baby E and life in general are so much less energy-intensive, I think we'll be able to maintain the house pretty well once we get things in order.

DH let me sleep in this morning, as usual on Saturdays. He's going to make my favorite banana-chocolate-chip waffles for brunch. The kids are excitedly making cards for me, and DH and the girls have a chocolate cake mix they're going to bake this evening.

Between last weekend and this weekend, this has got to be one of the best birthdays ever.

DH doesn't have to work again until Wednesday. We plan to fully enjoy our Christmas this year. We have some fun things planned with our own immediate family and with DH's family.

For most of the last 5 years or so, we've had some sort of major upheaval or crisis happening at holiday time--moving, death or serious illness in the family, etc. This year, Lord willing, seems to be the long-awaited calm and peaceful holiday season we've been missing.

Life is good.