Time Flies When You're Exhausted!

Wow, what a week!

Easter break (not Spring Break- I call 'em as I see 'em school districts!) might be a break for the kids, but definitely not the parents!

Especially this particular week- you see, Good Friday is also my daughter's birthday. The big One-O. She's now officially out of the single digits. So it was a moral imperative to have a party for her. And if you've read any of my previous posts, you know my house was a disaster and not ready for any kind of frivolous activity.

Yep. I said was. Oh, parts of it still are, but the important rooms (living room, dining room, my daughter's bedroom and the nook were all cleared and cleaned. Since my husband was pulling 15 hour workdays, he couldn't help- and of course he was the one that actually likes cleaning. Can you sense the irony?

I put on my Militant Mom cap and whipped the troops (aka my children) into a cleaning frenzy. We decluttered. We vacuumed. We got rid of stuff. And best of all, both kids cleaned their rooms to the best of their ability. Which in this mom's mind, is pretty darned fantastic!

Next were the party favors. Four girls were invited, so I had to get everything I would need for activities and goodies to take home. She wanted a Monster High theme, so I also had to get the proper color frostings for her homemade cake.

I was ready. The house was clean, I had homemade pizza ready to bake, and the macaroni and cheese was cooling on the counter. (these were her menu choices for the girls for lunch.) I was going to do face painting and have the girls make their own jewelry. The doll cake was frosted in Monster High colors (hot pink, while and black) and the cake itself was going to be hot pink with black chocolate animal stripes inside. Now all we needed were the guests.

The party started at noon, and my daughter waited outside for her friends and classmates to arrive. 12:30 she was still waiting. By the time 1:00 rolled around, my poor baby almost gave up! But then a single car pulled up and her one Christian friend popped out. She was so excited! The 'party' was only supposed to be until 3:00, but I told her mom to let her stay as long as she wanted, since she was the only attendee.

They were so busy opening presents, eating, and playing with my daughter's new gifts that she didn't go home until almost 8:00! My daughter had a blast, and we had a lot of pizza and macaroni left over for dinner, so I didn't have to cook.

As tired as I was, I was also angry. Where were all these so-called school friends? She was disappointed that the other girls didn't come, but loved spending all that time with a really good friend. My daughter had taken her lemons and made lemonade.

So for her birthday, my daughter gave me gifts. The gift of perspective. The gift of forgiveness. The gift of loving acceptance. She wasn't mad or bitter about the others not coming, and when school starts on Monday, she will be playing with them again just as she did before the party.

And I hope that all the adults out there (including myself) will follow her example.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart. Now Mommy is going to eat some cake and take a nap.