A Birthday and Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease

              My birthday was last week. I was expecting a rather dreary day because we had sick kids (more about that later) but actually, it was a lovely day. Kevin and the children were very sweet, and I got a FitBit!  Kevin got one a few weeks ago and is finding it inspiring in getting more exercise.  I hit 10,000 steps yesterday for the first time. I don't think I'll achieve that every day, but it is a goal to strive for.  Kevin's mom came over and watched kids so we could run off and have a quick birthday dinner at Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  Their food is SO good.

  We've had an illness wending its way through the family for close to a month now.  It has been tummy problems, mostly. Well, last week Rose broke out in a horrible rash, as you can see from the picture above.  It is all the way up her arms and legs.  I thought maybe it was poison ivy since we spent the early part of the week outside in the beautiful weather.  I took her to the pediatrician and they said no, it is enterovirus or hand, foot, and mouth disease. She has a truly terrible case of it.  She was miserable, poor sweet, for a couple of days. She does seem to be on the mend now, which is great.

  No one else has gotten the horrible rash but Daniel and Joseph are both sick now.  I think everyone else is through the illness (mostly). I hope.

 

Oh, I forgot to show my CAKE.  Lydia made it from scratch and decorated it.  She did a fabulous job!  We discovered at the last minute that SOMEONE (a small child, no doubt) had destroyed our "7" candle, so Kevin put on the ubiquitous 29 candle.  I am, of course, not 29.  If I were 29, then I would have had Naomi when I was 13.  Which would not have been good :-). 

I am, in fact, 47.  I hope with age I am gaining wisdom. I think I am.  I pray so much for wisdom and God keeps speaking, for which I am thankful.  

As an added aside, I had my first child was I was 30.  How many women have their first child at 30 and end up with 9 kids??  We are very blessed.  Our children are truly fantastic.  I sometimes get worn out by the day to day minutiae of life, but when I really think about these kids, they blow me away.  Each is such an individual personality, each has specific traits, each has certain strengths and certain weaknesses.  We're like our own little micro civilization. That's of course true of every family, not just ours.  I am so thankful to experience this life.