This past week has been a blur.  I truly dislike January and February, as a rule, and this year certainly lived up to it's annual torture.  Son, Alec, turned 11 the last day of January and his birthday was celebrated without the grandparents (one was ill, which has happened way too often, this being winter and all.)  Still he had a nice day.  Two weeks later was Carmen's birthday (her 8th) but two days prior my husband came down with a cold.  Tremendous.  That meant that I had to bake the cake.  I am NOT a cake baker - Todd is.  Fortunately, I had an angel food cake mix that is foolproof and saved the day.  The decorating wasn't as good as Todd's (his mother decorated cakes as a side job and he learned a lot), but I did my best with colored sugar sprinkles and pink candles.  And if you are wondering why we didn't just go buy a cake, well, I suppose we are just so used to homebaked that store bought is a bit of a let-down.  Todd doesn't even use a mix and his cakes come out better than mine.  But I have fully accepted this and embrace it as a blessing.

Anyway, both grandparents came over and Todd was able to sit with us, at least.  Carmen had a nice day.  I was so grateful that the winter birthdays were over.  No more birthdays for months.  I could relax.

And then the day after Carmen's birthday, Carmen woke up with a sore throat.  She gets so ill, even with just a cold, that it's totally exhausting for me.  Alec got it the next day.  So for the next 3 days or so, it was majorly stressful, but God is good.  Chad and I stayed healthy and we were able to care for everyone.  It was a mild cold, and Carmen actually began to recover by Tuesday or Wednesday, I can't remember.  Now, everyone is pretty much recovered and today we went for a short walk.  The weather has been so sunny, we've been anxious to get out.  I'm a big believer in sun and fresh air to help with pretty much everything and we opened all the windows for a short time (it was still just 45 degrees, after all.)

So, that's been my life since my handsome prince brought home another toy collectible car for me.  A few days ago, he bought me flowers.  What a guy!