The only day of the year when children are rewarded for begging from house to house for sweets.

Buncha mooches.

(My kids did their begging on Saturday. Yes, they're mooches too.)
posted by Steph at 7:27 PM[edit]

So it's Sunday. My little addiction, HSX seems to have been down since the time change last night. This is partially a good thing but mostly a bad thing. It's a good thing because that means I won't see the over 400k deduction in my portfolio, but that also means I can't trade away the things I need to. I played half my openers wrong...unfortunately the half I got right did not make me as much as I lost from the other half.

In other, happier news, I have been able to fit into a size 14 jeans. This doesn't sound like much...males won't be impressed, but females might understand that, since I started at a size 20, that's a major reduction. And I'm less than halfway to my goal. Twenty-eight more pounds to go...I'm hoping (hopehopehope) to get into a size 10. I'm already feeling better about myself. I can look into a mirror and not be disgusted about how I look...I can accept it as fact when my husband says I look good. I feel better physically, too.

Mmm...life is good and getting better....
posted by Steph at 2:53 PM[edit]

Geez. Thirteen days. (Wasn't that a movie recently?)

Life sometimes moves too fast...other times it doesn't move nearly fast enough. Nevertheless, my life hasn't changed a great deal over these thirteen days. Sure, my three year old has a new teacher, and I'll be watching one of my students at home from time to time. These are not life-changing things.

I lost another pound and gained another friend. I change diapers and minds...I lift a child's self-image and put down stereotypes of working mothers. I cleaned the house. (Now there's a life change.)

Financial issues seem to be coming up again, but for my longtime readers you know what old hat this is. Maybe one day we'll finally get to a point where we can do things and go places whenever we want...when we don't have to look at one another, upon overhearing yet another friend talking about some enjoyable thing they did, and saying to each other, it must be nice.

Anyway...Eva's just arrived home..time for me to do the mommy thing and start supper.
posted by Steph at 4:31 PM[edit]

Peer pressure is a terrible thing.

I just broke up a near-fight between my five year old son and a group of boys and girls, all older than he is, that he was "annoying". My eleven year old was just standing there and watching. Her reason for not taking up with him? "They would think I wasn't cool." Hello??? And watching your brother get beaten up is cool???

What I don't understand is why our house is kid central all of a sudden. Over the summer you couldn't have found a kid within miles. Now they come as if they're drawn with a magnet. It's one older girl that seems to be the troublemaker, and that's sad, because my daughter has just been forbidden to hang out with her. She seems kinda relieved, actually...she has a valid reason now not to be seen with her.

Schoolyard politics...I hated them as a kid, and I hate them now.
posted by Steph at 4:54 PM[edit]

::cricket sounds::

Where is everyone?
posted by Steph at 8:53 PM[edit]

Celebrate little things. Like a computer without viruses, or how easy it is to get to your favorite webpages with a single click. Backup, backup, backup, because you never know exactly when it might all disappear.

Something infected my computer this afternoon. What a pain. Thankfully, restoring windows did not completely clean out my hd like it did my good friend Jono a couple of weeks ago. But I do have to remember the web addresses of all the sites I love to visit...and it's not as easy as you might think.

Life, in general, is good. I'm feeling much better, and every day is another step back to the cheerfulness I always had before THE day. (And this is the last time I'm going to mention THE day unless something huge comes up.) The weather, the bright sun, the children who love me even when they're crying....all these things combine to give me the energy that other people drain from me on a day to day basis.

At least my life is constant.
posted by Steph at 7:04 PM[edit]

I finally got around to getting my Gifts page posted! Many thanks to Jonathan for sending my very first gift. The link to that page is to your left...here's hoping for gifts from others, too!
posted by Steph at 5:00 PM[edit]