Not So Happy Birthday

Yesterday was Derrick’s birthday. Weekday birthdays are hard to celebrate in the adult world. It seemed as a kid that the world just stood still for one day each year in acknowledgement of the fact that you were born. Not so as an adult. Derrick had a long work day scheduled already, leaving only a few good celebrating hours.

So, the pressure was on to make those few hours count.

We had a date night planned for the following night complete with 2 baby-sitters (1 doesn’t quite cut it when there are 4 kids ages 5 and under). Still I wanted to make a big deal of Derrick’s actual birthday.

A dinner out was out of question (the whole 4 kids thing again), so I decided that a nice dinner at home would be the best alternative.

So I had 2 main tasks for the day- clean the apartment and cook dinner.

Oh, and home school. And take care of 4 kids.

When I opened the refrigerator, the meal options seemed pretty bleak. Carrots, eggs, those were pretty much the only fresh things. I scurried around the cabinets and freezer and eventually drummed up the ingredients for a homemade barbecue pizza and sugar cookies (with Fourth of July sprinkles that I bought on clearance at the grocery last month). Not too bad.

Fast forward to 6:00, and everything was reasonably together. Derrick was planning to pick up a couple movies on the way home to watch after we put the kids down for the night. Dinner was almost done, the rooms were clean and the rest of the stuff was at least out of sight (the whole 4 kids thing). The kids hung streamers all over the house and made at least 8 birthday cards throughout the day, so it was beginning to feel a little bit exciting.

But then Derrick’s train broke down. After sitting on the train for an hour, he was finally able to jump off two stops away from his stop.

So Derrick finally arrives home at 7:00.

Eli was particularly fussy, but I passed him to Derrick so that I could put dinner on the table. Finally, we all sat down. The pizza was good, I thought. Derrick said that it was one of my best. However, the kids did not agree.

“This tastes like poop”, said Logan.

“I’m throwing mine in the garbage”, Lane chimed in.

Emma Jane said nothing, but threw her pizza slice across the table.

And the festive atmosphere took a nose dive.

Let me say, right now, that this is not normal dinner behavior at our house. You may not believe me, but I’ve never had all about rebellion in response to a meal I’ve fixed. But here it was.

Happy birthday, Derrick.

Somehow we made it through dinner and moved on to dessert, purple sugar cookies (because the kids mixed the red and blue sprinkles).

Before we knew it, bedtime was here. Wearily, we tucked everyone in and headed to the couch to watch our movie. Less than halfway through, we both fell asleep on the couch. We woke up a few hours later and started to get ready for bed. Then Logan began to cry. Then he threw up. We divided and conquered. I bathed Logan while Derrick stripped the bed and set Logan and me up to sleep in the living room.

We knew that tomorrow night’s date would be cancelled. It would ruin our friendship with these girls to knowingly expose them to the germs festering in our home.

So the nose-diving birthday celebration was now an official crash.

As I lamented to my mom, she told me to think about the funny things and the special things. I was quite annoyed by that piece of advice at first, (sorry Mom) but now see that maybe she was right. So here is my list of funny and /or good things that my mom practically made me write.

1. I have a sweet husband to share my days with and to do even disgusting jobs with me.

2. Derrick is able to laugh at the most inappropriate times. As I held Logan’s throw up bucket, I turned my head away and made a rather ridiculous face. Derrick laughed at me and made me laugh, too.

3. My life is full to the brim with these little children, and I love taking care of them.

4. Obviously today is better, because I had time to blog.

5. Between rounds of vomit, Derrick and I had a really good conversation. I think that life is so challenging right now, we can’t possibly maintain the façade that we have it all together. That makes for good conversations.

6. The Lord promised not to give us more than we could handle with His strength. Therefore, we would not despair over a disappointing birthday, sickness, and work days and needs that seem to never end.

7. We have half a movie to watch tonight after the kids go to bed.