Report on a Birthday Week-end

For weeks, people had been asking how we would celebrate my spouse's birthday.  I shrugged.  We're not a couple that makes big birthday plans.  But I didn't mean to forget it.

Somewhere along the way I had gotten it in my head that his birthday was on Sunday.  It wasn't until I was at the gym, in the middle of spin class, that I realized that Sept. 26 was actually on Saturday.

Happily there was still time.  I came back in the house singing the Happy Birthday song.

We had a low-key birthday:  homemade pizza while watching PBS cooking shows, a lovely nap, a swim in the pool, some paperwork tasks completed.  In a way, it's like many a Saturday in our house.  In some ways, with each year, we feel lucky to still be in relatively good health, since so many are not.

Yesterday, we had another celebration.  We went to a friend's house, where my quilting group would gather.  The men worked on installing a fence and a gate around the garden, and then they swam in the pool.  I got the Lutheran World Relief quilt finished.  It was good to reconnect with some of the South Florida friends I've had the longest.

Today it's back to work--I need to do some checking and doublechecking to see who needs which Math class.  I need to register students into those classes.  If there's time left, I need to work on a syllabus for my class that starts a week from Thursday.  And there are the annual reviews that need attention.

But before I plunge myself into those tasks, let me take a minute to bask in a week-end which combined rest, recharging, writing, grading--and reconnecting.