This is 40

I meant to do so many posts over the last month but nothing has quite been how I planned it. I'm going to try to prevent writing a novel here, so to be very brief:

In early June, within two days Chewie broke both of her arms-- her left wrist and then her upper right arm (proximal humerus). She has a cast on the wrist and a sling on the right arm. We hoped to get rid of them both last week but they haven't healed yet. No summer camp for her, no swimming, no playing, no running and jumping and enjoying summer. She is now able to feed herself some things but still cannot dress herself or brush her teeth. I bought her an iPad mini and she uses it all the time. She will have major withdrawal once her arms are working again and she has to follow the same electronics rules. It is impacting everything-- LightRunner's behavior, our routines, everything. Right after she broke both arms, the Princess came down with both strep throat and a mystery high-fever virus, and then Chewie caught the same bug. Anything I hoped to accomplish before school was out was thrown out the window. No special LightRunner and me time.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, also in June, Vader threw me a "surprise" early 40th birthday party. I knew it was coming but not where or when (until that week). It was a great night filled with wonderful friends and the perfect beginning to what will no doubt be my best decade yet.

Surrounded by friends! Ignore the red eye. 

On my actual birthday, Britt came over with pizza and peanut butter brownies that she spent all day making, despite her son's severe peanut and milk allergies. That's love.

I celebrated by running 8 miles (8/2=4 and also it was on my plan) the day before my birthday and running 4 awesome miles of speedwork yesterday. Truly awesome. I paid for a babysitter to watch LightRunner and Chewie so I could do my speedwork at the track and it was worth every penny.

June pretty much sucked and was not at all what I planned and I'll admit I had a couple of days when I was not at my best. But we adapt. We do what we can do and we move on. In my 20s and early 30s I would have wallowed and lamented and cursed my fate. But what's the point? You do what you can do. And let the rest go. And *that* is 40.