Tomorrow is my birthday. I have decided to give myself something odd. I fired off a text message to someone whose daughter I wind up walking home from school more often than not. I told him I would not be able to walk his daughter home from school this week. Happy Birthday to me.
Perhaps this sounds odd, but given how sick my family has been in recent history, how much stress I feel every time a stomach virus attacks my family, and how I never really wanted to have a non-paid position routinely making sure someone else's kidlet got home from school safely, it was the best thing I could do for my own mental health. I have a hard enough time keeping it together when one person in the family starts with a stomach virus. Until it has been two weeks since the last person puked, or until all five of us have contracted it, my stress levels go through the roof. Sadly, that messes with my stomach and I'm never really sure if I've had the virus to a lesser extent or if my symptoms were strictly from stress. Unless I suddenly get much worse, there's no real way to tell. Either way, I still feel miserable. Taking responsibility for other people's kidlets also causes me stress, which just makes everything more complicated. So I gave myself the gift of slightly lower stress levels, at least for one week.
Of course, the one birthday gift I would love to receive is for my family to be healthy and to be completely done with any and all stomach viruses that are floating around out there. That would be truly wonderful. Wish me luck with receiving that gift...
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