Birthdays

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

~ Lao Tzu

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Every day when we get up we decide what steps we will take. Will we make the day a good one or a bad one? Can we overcome the challenges before us? If so, how?

Today is Chris' birthday. The challenges faced so far include:

* Chris staying up with Maddie until 11:30 p.m. working on a poster presentation on the Lakota for school today.

* Maddie knocking a lamp over in the living room and breaking the glass shade.

* Elizabeth having a meltdown because she can't find a bike lock, thus she cannot ride her bike to school.

* Elizabeth crying on the phone and Chris asking E to sing happy birthday to her. It went like this (imagine intense sobbing as a small child-voice sings):

Happy birthday to-- NEKO GET DOWN OFF THE COUNTER!!!!

I thought things started to turn around when Penny bought her a caffeine-infused cupcake. At least that made Chris able to type much faster...

After reflecting on the entire day (which was followed later with the girls going to a swim meet and eating there instead of coming home for birthday dinner with their mom and then Chris and I having to go to Maddie's middle school orientation -- which Maddie told us about the night before), the moral of the story is this:

Birthdays are most often like any other day, even if we try really hard to make them different.

Which, in Chris' case, means another pretty good day in a pretty good life. Happy birthday!

NOTE: I did write this on the 1st, but am just now posting it.