Happy Birthday, Phillip!

On Monday, we celebrated Phillip's 38th birthday. Yes, he is getting dangerously close to his fourth decade, but we'll keep him around anyway! Phillip has always kind of low-keyed his birthdays, but that's pretty hard to do with a 6 year old who just loves birthdays!

It was a very nice day on Monday...with the temperature in the 60's and the sun actually making an appearance for a change! It was my intention to begin our school routine again on Monday after being off for the holidays, but it was too nice a day and we had lots of birthday preparations to work on.

We spent the morning preparing the cake. Archie made it mostly himself, with just a little help from me. Here he is in his Chef coat and hat.

After the cake was done, we spent the rest of the afternoon making birthday posters and decorating the dining room. When Phillip came home, we had to hide and yell surprise when he came in the door. Everything worked according to plan, and we had a nice little birthday party. I think that even Phillip enjoyed his birthday as much as we did!

On other topics, I have been struggling mightily trying to get back into school / house cleaning / regular routine mode. I have been feeling exhausted, even when I wake up in the morning! The time in Mobile really screwed up my sleep schedule--I was doing pretty well at falling asleep around 11pm and waking up around 7 or 7:30. But now I'm lucky if I can get to sleep before 12:30 or 1 am and I have been waking up around 3 or 4am, then having a hard time going back to sleep, then ultimately waking around 9 still feeling tired. *sigh*

Plus, the dreariness of the weather is not good for my spirits either. It's mostly overcast in the winter, and I am having a hard time not seeing the sun. It just makes me feel lethargic. I can deal with the cold...I just need to see the sun! The ground is too smooshy from snow melt and rain to hit the forest for a hike or for yard work, so I'm having a hard time with having to stay indoors. I walked to the library today, which was nice, but it's tough finding the energy to make myself do anything. The yoga class last night helped some.

Our Christmas tree is still up, which is quite unheard of for me. Usually I'm pretty ready to get the decorations and stuff put away shortly after the big day. Right now, I just can't seem to get up the energy to get it done.

On the other hand...the Summers are fabulous here, with the sun going down around 9:30 or 10pm and less humidity than what I'm used to, and fantastic temperatures! So I guess I'm paying the price for the good summer weather right now.