Happy Halloween

Everybody jump for joy...

...We're off to see the WOLF!!!
Have a Happy Halloween... We know we will!!!

Halloween Parade

Every year the girls' school has a Halloween parade. The kids all march out of the school and usually around the parking lot before parading back inside for their class parties. This year they changed the route a little and paraded around a field on a mountain in back of the school. It was C O L D up there which was fine for my kitty cat and unicorn, but some of the harem girls, ballerinas and bathing beauties looked downright cold.
Here's Hannah leading her class with her friend (and one of my Brownies) Maura:

Here's Hannah the unicorn. You can't see it, but in her bucket she has a baby unicorn. There were many cats and vampires and gory zombies but only ONE unicorn:

Here's Lizzie again. I love the little "paw" gloves we found on ebay: After the parade they went back in the school and had a party where they each got about 14 pounds of candy which they ate on the bus and did not share with their mother.

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

I bought a memory card for my new camera and it turns out that it takes pretty good video. At least as good as my (recently drenched and now dead) video camera. Here's Lizzie playing the piano. She actually skipped ahead in her piano lesson book to teach heself this AND she's been playing the music that we sing at church by ear, too. I think she may be a prodigy. (Although I could be slightly biased.) For some reason when I converted this from the HUGE movie file my camera records in, it makes me sound like I've got some sort of speech impediment. Which I don't. (I'm pretty sure.)

Oh, and after she finishes playing you'll see some of the crazyness that is our lives around here. And please ignore my messy living room. I promise it will be nice and clean one of these days (maybe 2013?)

Enjoy ... and I hope this gets you in the Christmas spirit...

Happy Early Halloween

The following is my winning entry into the Writer's Weekly 24-hour short story contest. I wrote it during a fall weekend in Gettysburg about five years ago and I share it now to get you ready for Halloween.

The parameters of the contest were to write on a particular topic (woman brushing snow away from a grave in late autumn, and then running away from it), within a certain number of words (990) and within 24 hours. The parameters were emailed to us at 1 p.m. on a Saturday and the finished entries had to be emailed back by the next day at 1 p.m. I won an honorable mention, which put my story in the top 20 of the 500 entries.

This is my BONUS post for Thursday since I forgot Wednesday -- for cute kid pictures, see the post below this!

Find Me!





Margaret watched as the woman knelt at the grave, brushed the feathery snow from the granite lamb, taped a piece of pink paper to the headstone and then dashed away.



Through the smudged window Margaret saw her come every single day. Some days she bowed her head in prayer. Some days she appeared to weep. On days when it was dreary she’d bring a handful of daisies. Always though, she’d touch the shiny weathered head of the lamb and leave a pink slip of paper.



Margaret traced a finger in the dust of the windowpane found herself tapping it. Tap … tap … tap…



It was a game she and Connor used to play. She’d tap; he’d tap. She’d tap faster; he’d tap faster. They’d tap on the stairs, on the windows, on the doors and tables until they were dancing in circles around the house, laughing and falling into a happy snuggle on the overstuffed couch in front of the fireplace. It was heaven.



Now Connor lay beneath that lamb in the flash-frozen earth and Margaret knew what no one else knew – that she should have saved him.



Margaret moved her hand from the chill of the windowpane down to the sill and reached her long fingers towards the bottle of xanax. Two would make her to move away from the window. Four would make her forget. Eight would make her sleep. Sixteen would make her sleep forever.
Instead of grabbing the bottle she flicked it another inch away from her, marveling as it pitched to the side before righting itself.



It was better to feel the pain. Better to remember.



There was a time when her life was blissfully ordinary. Margaret lived with her husband, six-year-old Connor, and a baby girl who smiled from dawn until dusk. Margaret knew a boundless love. But then the police would knock at her door and hand her a stuffed animal, a blankie, a torn tee shirt and ask her what she felt. And she felt boundless pain.



“Can you find him?” They’d ask.



Once in a while they’d bring skittish parents with them who would grab Margaret’s hand and squeeze it until she said, yes, I can find him.



Newspapers wrote about her, clerics prayed for her, skeptics mocked her.



Yet, she always found them.



But then one day when winter had blown fall to pieces, there was a police officer at her door and he handed her a note.



She remembered seeing his breath in the space between them – crazy for October, she said, laughing. But there was no amusement in the officer’s bright blue eyes as he read the note aloud.





Connor was taken, hidden, dying and – if she was as talented as the papers said – able to be saved by her, and only her.



The words spat at her from the paper, challenging her or in a crazy zealot way supporting her, but it didn’t matter. In that moment, standing in the brisk breeze of an early winter she was just a mother with nails bitten to the quick in fear for her son’s life. In that moment she wasn’t intuitive. In that moment she was scared. She was hopeless. She was human.



So, Margaret went to the room at the top of the stairs where Connor had been just that morning, dawdling his way through his morning routine, and she sat on his bed and pulled his Barney comforter around her. Tighter. Like his arms in an embrace.



“Find me,” she heard it softly. “Find me, Mommy, I’m waiting.”



Margaret closed her eyes and strained to see where he was. But he was just a voice. Like so many voices with no bodies, no arms or legs or heads. Just spirits in space.



Every day a note came. Every day, every hour, every minute, Margaret sat in his room and heard the same thing over and over again. “Find me, Mommy, I’m waiting.”



She told them to search for a barn near a lake and they did. No Connor.



She told them to search for a woodshed in a thicket of evergreen trees and they did. No Connor.



Seven days into her agony, a hunter found him in a tree house in the woods, as cold as the lamb that two days later marked his grave. In his hands he held two pictures: One of a barn by a lake and the other of a woodshed in a circle of evergreens.



Margaret buried him and went into her house to wonder why she couldn’t save him. Wonder if she’d ever be able to forgive herself for letting him go.



Every day the voice still tortured her, “Find me, Mommy.”



And every day this woman with her strawberry blonde hair and her handful of daisies would come by the gravesite.



Margaret tapped on the window to see if the woman noticed, but she just left her note and turned away, not even glancing at the house.



But on this day, Margaret flew out the door in a rage. Connor was her son. She would brush the snow from his grave and lay daisies.



But by the time Margaret had gotten outside and over to the grave the woman was gone. She knelt and rested her head against the lamb, reading Connor’s name and his dates. Her eyes glanced over the pink piece of paper taped to the lamb’s back. It said “Find the Light, Mommy.”



Margaret heard Connor in that moment, louder and sweeter this time. “Find me Mommy. I’m waiting for you.”



There was light. And there was Connor. There was forgiveness and nothing to forgive.



And at the edge of the woods in the freezing cold of an early winter Margaret’s daughter watched her mother finally, 23 years after her grieving suicide, disappear into the thin air of the universe.

New Camera

Yes, I am aware that I didn't post yesterday. That is why I will have a BONUS post later this evening.

But for now I want to tell you all that I bought a new camera. It's a Kodak point and shoot and I love it. It's different from my Canon because it's a point and shoot, but frankly nearly all the pictures that I take don't need more than a point and shoot. And this one has a SCENES setting that will supposedly change settings so that I can get close ups and action shots.

And it has video.
Of course with the internal memory you only get 13 SECONDS of video, but I'll get a memory card eventually (of course the memory cards from my other two cameras are the wrong kind!)

So here are some pictures that I took today. I did not edit these pictures at all. They are Straight Out of the Camera. In photography circles that's important to note, but I note it here because it basically means I did not edit out the messiness of my house. Or the fluffyness of my dog. Cash was the first object I could photograph when the camera was delivered this morning:

Later though Hannah came home. The thing that is cool about this picture is that the back is sort of blurred, but Hannah (who was jumping around) is still in focus:

Lizzie is hiding behind Hannah and you can see taht they are being crazy. And trust me, this craziness did not end until about 45 minutes ago:

They took time out for a hug, too. Oh, and for those of you interested in ghost-y things, you'll notice an orb up in the corner of the room. Interestingly when I take pictures with my SLR there are rarely orbs because of the way the camera works, but a point and shoot will capture them. So we have some visitors in the house:

Lizzie and Rob working on her piano lessons together. Hannah trying to get into the picture:

Hannah getting in the picture:

Lizzie getting in the spirit of things: So, I'm giving the camera two thumbs up. I'm going to try some photo editing to see how that works. And once I get a bigger memory card I'll upload some video. Lizzie's getting really good on the piano!

Food

I love to cook. I love to eat.

It was, in fact, a perfect marriage until I found out that this perfect marriage of skill and enjoyment was destined for divorce court thanks to that dastardly interloper, HIGH CHOLESTEROL.

Now, I've had high cholesterol for a few years. In fact it's been a lot higher than it was when I went to the doctor recently, but since she's my NEW doctor she was alarmed and started saying things like, diet and exercise and vegetables. Oh. My.

She did not say words like chocolate chip cookies, cream puffs and raisin toast. Or ziti or lasagna or filet mignon.

In fact when I said them she said that I couldn't eat them. Not even in moderation. No one, it seems, NEEDS to eat cream puffs. Bummer.

So, after a full 24 hours of sulking I decided that I will engage my love of cooking in a quest for healthy meals in hopes that my family will still love eating what I've created. Or to be more specific that I will love eating what I've created.

So last week I made this vegetarian curry. It satisfies several of my requirements for food, the first of which is that it must be easy to find the ingredients in my pantry and spice cabinet. For this recipe I had to adjust some of the spices to things that I had on hand because I'm not the kind of person to run out and buy a jar of cayenne pepper when crushed red pepper flakes will work just as well. That, my friends, is also why I can never give you my exact recipes. I have no idea what goes into them.

Anyway, The verdict was mixed. I LOVED it, Rob LOVED it. The girls? Not so much. It is very spicy, which I could probably tone down, but it was soooooo good I'm not going to. Luckily both girls loved the rice that was served with it. For the leftovers I made a box of cous cous with raisins. Yummo as Rachel Ray (of whom I am NOT a fan, but I like the word) would say.

So it is with only moderate sulking that I continue my quest for good HEALTHY low calorie food. Her exercise recommendation (10 sessions of 30 minutes per week) will take a lot more sulking to get over.

Ode to Cash

If nothing else, the title of this post will get Rob to read it. Although he'll be sorely disappointed because this post is about my puppy Cash, not the kind of cash Rob would write an ode to.

Anyway, I love my dog. I've always known it -- ever since he looked at me with he dark chocolate brown eyes and threw up all over my back seat. We bonded instantly.
And last week Cash was very sick and threw up all over the house (seriously this dog has thrown up in the last 7 months more than both Hannah and Elizabeth combined in their lives of the past 7 (almost 8) years!) so I had to take him to the vet and he had to spend the night in the hospital.
HOSPITAL!
It turns out he just had a bad stomach virus, but it was kind of lonely around here without him for that day and a half. Because even though he can be a very very BAD dog, he's mostly a very GOOD dog. See, here he is with Hannah: What you can't see is that probably about 25 seconds before I snapped this picture Hannah and Cash were driving each other CRAZY. Lizzie and Hannah see Cash as their baby brother and treat him accordingly. I think I break up just as many fights between dog and girl as I do between girl and girl. Ultimately though, Cash is very forgiving and they all make up and live to fight another day.

Lizzie has told me that she's jealous of Cash and that he gets to stay home with me all day. I told her that it's really not all that interesting. Pretty much Cash sleeps during the day except for the walk we try to take in the late morning. He needs to conserve his energy for when the other puppies get off the bus. Here he's giving Lizzie a little puppy love:

Here are Cash's stats: He'll be a year old on Nov. 17 and he weighs around 50 lbs. I don't know how tall he is, but I know that when he stands on his hind legs he's as tall as me, and he can jump on the kitchen table unassisted in one leap. He can sit, lay down, stay (once in a while), get up and dance (usually with Hannah). He likes to eat everything EXCEPT his dog food. And by everything I mean bandaids, kleenex, toilet paper, dead things on the lawn, leaves and the occasional raw chicken that's been left to thaw on the kitchen island.

Interestingly though, Cash has a delicate stomach which means that when he eats these things we get to seem them again. One way or another. I'm sorry for that visual. I probably should have put a warning in case you were reading this over your breakfast... Anyway, Cash now is supposed to get doses of Pepcid when his stomach is upset. And he'll have to go back to the dog hospital if he has another episode like last week because he got dehydrated. Oh and he has allergies, too. He needs benedryl when the grass is growing or trees or blooming or something like that. I know he HAS allergies, but I don't know what they are to.

But I love him despite his puky stomach and craziness with the girls and the fact that if I don't get to bed in time he appropriates my side of the mattress. I love him because he is a good dog, he gives me kisses, he makes me laugh, and (mostly, I think) he's the ONLY person in this family who actually listens to me (at least once in a while.)

And because I love him, this is what happens when you're mean to the dog. You get to spend some time in doggy jail WITH him... Let's just say this isn't the first time Hannah's been hanging with Cash -- nor will it be the last.

Simple Woman's Daybook

For October 24, 2010

Outside my window... One of the most beautiful fall days you can imagine. It's warm enough to run around without a coat, but not humid. And the leaves are starting to turn yellow and orange. Haven't seen any red leafed trees yet although I know the Japanese Maple in my backyard will turn the most beautiful deep crimson once it gets a little cooler.

I am thinking... about going to Stuart's Fruit Farm in my hometown as a kid. We went there officially to get apples and freshly pressed cider and pumpkins at this time of year, but my sisters and I also went there unofficially just about every morning in fall when we'd sneak across the street from our bus stop and grab some apples right from the tree for lunch.

I am thankful ... for the health that my mother is slowly but surely regaining.

From the kitchen... Pumpkin pie!!! Requested by Lizzie and the reason I am inside writing this instead of outside exercising my lungs with the fresh air.

I am wearing... blue pants, grey polo shirt, red fake suede jacket.

I am creating... a giant To Do list. Since the time I thought I was going to have has evaporated I decided that I must do at least one thing per day like wash the slider door windows or polish the living room coffee table. Perhaps that way I won't feel like such a sloth. Or at least I'll feel like a cleaning one thing a day sloth.

I am going ... to get the pumpkin pie out of the oven...be right back... Oh My!! Doesn't it smell delicious??

I am reading... my own book over and over again as I get it ready for the publisher who requested it.

I am hoping... that my doctor will tell me tomorrow that my cholesterol is back to normal and I've lost 75 lbs.

I am hearing... the girls working on a Halloween Decoration project. So far I know it involves napkins and tape because I've had to supply those. I suppose there will be an unveiling in a few minutes...okay now I hear some arguing so it may be an hour or so before the unveiling.

Around the house... blech. And double blech. I'm busy and I know it, but does my house have to show it?? I would get a cleaning lady except that the house would probably be a wreck 10 minutes after she left. :( I seriously need to work on Rob's housekeeping skills. (Ha, Ha.)

One of my favorite things... Moonlight Path perfume from Bath and Body Works. I've been wearing it for years and I still don't get tired of it.

A few plans for the week ahead... doctors (for me) on Monday, dentist for Lizzie on Tuesday, dance, drama class, piano, halloween parties and then GREAT WOLF LODGE next weekend to celebrate Hannah and Lizzie's 8th birthday (which isn't for another three weeks, but I got a good room rate so we are going and they can't wait!!)

A picture I am sharing... Rob and the girls cooking and Cash cleaning up:

Birthday Memories

For those of you who only come here to see pictures of my gorgeous daughters, here they are about an hour ago before their rehearsal for Nutcracker. I'll post more pictures of them in the coming days (remember -- one blog a day through Nov. 1!) but now let's get on to the important stuff ;) ME!!

I had a birthday three weeks ago. I'm not telling you the number, but I much prefer its reverse: 25.
And I must say that having your birthday on a weekend is quite lovely because you have the WHOLE DAY to remind people that it's your birthday and they must get/make you a cake. Those of you who know me even more than just a little know that Rob has NEVER gotten me a birthday cake. Never. Ever. One year my friend Bethany took pity upon me and made me her family's special birthday cake, but other than that (oh and my 50th birthday party when my mother in law and sister in law got me a delicious cake and I also bought one for myself because I sort of didn't know I was having a surprise party) no cakes.

So this year I did what any self-respecting mom would do. I told my daughters to take their father to do the store and buy me a birthday cake. So this is what I got:

Lovely isn't it? Purple is my favorite color (which Hannah knows because it's her favorite color, too.) And here is how it was presented to me. Notice how I don't even need a flash to get this picture of Rob singing? Yes, that's the benefit of ALL THOSE CANDLES!!!

We had lunch at the Red Robin. You can go to their website and sign up for the birthday club and a week or so before your birthday they'll send you a coupon for a free burger and sundae. I had the burger and the girls split my sundae and the food was really good. A nice way to celebrate and the final bill only came to something like $25 for the four of us. BONUS!!

When we got home the girls gave me my gifts: a gorgeous umbrella with flowers all over it from Lizzie and dangly crystal clip on earrings from Hannah. Rob gave me the iPod which I quite possible killed on Thursday night, which I loved for three weeks.

Oh and it was a great weekend all around because on FRIDAY we celebrated our 16th anniversary, which is two days before my birthday. Rob brought home these flowers from work. I just threw them out yesterday (three weeks later) so he really got a lot for his money, which makes HIM very happy, too!!

A day in the life...

I know, I know, it's been ages since I last posted. So that is why I am now vowing to post every single day between now and November 1. I'm doing this because my friend Cindy has been blogging every day to bring awareness to Down Syndrome (her youngest son has an extra chromosome PLUS a 15,000 watt smile) and I cannot even get it together to post once. So I'm going to see if I can do it. Every day between now and Nov. 1.

But just in case you were wondering WHY I don't blog more often it's not (as you might think) because I have suddenly decided that our lives are simply not that interesting. I decided that A LONG TIME AGO. Instead, it's really been that I've been busy. Someone must have changed the space time continuum or something becasue the six hours or so per day that I'm supposed to be basically child free to shop, watch soap operas and eat bon bons has been cruelly taken from me
So I thought (not really, but who cares) that you might like to know what a day in the life of ME is like.

7 a.m. My alarm goes off. I didn't hear it because I was downstairs asleep on the couch because I was up late writing and closed my eyes for just. one. minute. zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Luckily Rob came down to have breakfast at 6:45 so he woke me up.

7:10ish I got the girls up. They were actually half awake this morning, so I didn't have to physically remove anyone from a bed. (Except of course for myself).

7:10 to 7:30: Make breakfast for Hannah, Liz and Cash. Let Cash out. Let Cash in. Let Cash out (he's got a stomach bug...) Check my email and see that there are 32 emails. Two of them are moderately important.

7:30 to 7:50: Supervise Hannah and Lizzie getting ready for school. This means making sure that their homework is in their backpacks, their planners are signed and ready to go, they are wearing clothes that are appropriate although not always matching, hair combed, gym shoes on. Oh, and make them lunches. They used to like the same stuff for lunch and now they don't. This morning Lizzie informed me that she's "not really a chocolate girl" so she doesn't want the M&Ms for dessert. I scrounge around and find her some gummy fruits that are not chocolate.

7:50 to 8 a.m.: Run upstairs, hop in the shower, brush teeth, get dressed and run back downstairs yelling for everyone to put a sweater on and get out to the bus. As we are walking out the door Hannah tells me that today is bring in some food for the hungry day, so I run back inside the house and get a box of scalloped potatoes for Hannah and a box of stuffing for Lizzie.

8 a.m. to 8:13 a.m.: Wait for the bus with the girls while pulling little pieces of lint out of Lizzie's hair because a pillow exploded somewhere in our house and she danced around in it (or so she told me.)

8:13: FREEDOM!!! Well, not really.

8:13 to 9 a.m.: Eat breakfast, let the dog in and out a few more times, respond to the two important emails, check my planner for the day, see that 6 more emails have come in, all of them work related and respond to them.

9 to 9:45: Work on web content and setting up interviews for future stories. Okay, and check facebook, too. Play Jungle Jewels and lose miserably.

9:45 to 11:30: Go to St. Peter's Bakery and get some multi-grain bread, have coffee with my friend Amy during which we solve the problems of the world and then I inexplicably feel nauseated (probably the antibiotic I had for breakfast -- tooth abcess medicine) and have to run home where I don't get sick, thankfully because that has been Cash's job for the past four days.

11:30 to 1: Eat lunch (chicken corn chowder soup), spend 15 minutes training the dog so that he won't keep trying to eat my soup, answer some MORE email, write two web content stories. Realize that tomorrow is a deadline for a story on Cirque du Soleil that I've researched but not begun writing, so I look at youtube videos of cirque du soleil to get a feel for the story. Then I check facebook again.

1:30 to 2 p.m.: Go food shopping intending to pick up cous cous for dinner and a couple of cans of yams for the give food to the hungry day that will conclude tomorrow and end up spending $85 on a bunch of other stuff including NON CHOCOLATE cupcakes and skittles for Lizzie's lunch. Remember I need cous cous while in line and go back and get it. And grab some applesauce too. And some instant potatoes.

2 p.m. to 3:24 p.m. Work on some web content. Pick up dirty clothes from the floor. Or maybe they are clean. Hannah changes her clothes often so they may have only been worn for 35 seconds. Put all clothes in the hamper because it takes too much time to try and figure out if they are clean or dirty. Let dog out and throw a ball for him for 5 minutes. Step in dog poop and spend 10 minutes trying to clean my shoe. Curse the person who is supposed to clean up the dog poop in the yard and then remember it is me. Polish my web content stories and try to organize my Eagle stories for next couple of weeks. Send an email to Kelly McGillis' people to see if she'll talk to me for 20 minutes on Tuesday although since it's taken 2 weeks for me just to get the contact info I don't have much hope for the interview. Do 15 minutes on my glider while watching "Modern Family" on Tivo. Talk to my friend Kara on the phone because she just sold her house and is moving in three weeks. I say congrats and then hang up on her because I see that it is nearly 3:21 and I have to be out at the bus.

3:24-3:30 Wait for bus while reading mail that has arrived. It's a Wegman's coupon packet and an ad to bring all my friends to Catherine's -- a plus sized clothing store-- to save 50 percent on one item. I wonder just how insulted my friends would be if I took them to a sale at a plus sized clothing store. Girls get off the bus and start yelling WHAT'S FOR SNACK????

3:30 to 4 p.m.: Girls have snack. Hannah has some coffee cake and milk. Lizzie Miss I'm not really a chocolate girl has chocolate covered swiss rolls from Tasty Kakes and some juice. We empty backpacks, put coats where they belong, check for homework that needs to be done tonight (math and word study and the 100 book challenge). Then I send them downstairs to relax until homework starts. I try to write a lead for my Cirque story, but Hannah has decided to watch Scooby Doo in the family room and it's very noisy. Instead I load my new voice recognition software into my computer and start playing with it. It cannot understand me and I think, of course, why would it be any different from my children. Then I read the directions and see that I need a special microphone which I will have to go to Staples and buy tomorrow.

4 to 4:45: Homework. Seriously I can't even make a joke about it, it is so annoying, but Hannah finishes hers while Lizzie opts to play piano and read. She'll do her math after dinner and I don't argue because when they BOTH try to math AT THE SAME TIME I find myself looking for sharp objects with which I can poke myself in the eye.

4:45: The girls get ready for dance class while I call my mother (this is Thursday and I've called my mother every Thursday afternoon for at least the last 20 years) and we talk for 22 mintues about school and food and how she's feeling better and so is Cash. It's all good.

5:12: Tell girls to get in the car to go to dance class. Hannah has stolen Lizzie's dance bag so a fight ensues. I tell them I will be in the car and eventually they work it out (or maybe not since everyone is sulking in the car) and they get out to the car. But only after I've honked the horn three times and noted to myself that we are going to be late for dance class AGAIN. Get to dance class in the nick of time, but notice that Hannah has decided to put her tights on OVER her socks. I don't ask why, but Lizzie tells her she's odd and everyone will laugh at her. Hannah starts to take her leotard off, but there is no time since the teacher has arrived. So she just sulks.

5:38 - 7p.m: Back home from the drop off. Check email, respond to a twin mom who is having trouble getting her kids to nap. I feel her pain. I want a nap, too. Then try to clear off a spot on the table for dinner, get the clothes out of the dryer (from yesterday) and put them in my SECOND laundry room AKA my dining room. Put the rest of the groceries away from before, prepare dinner for Rob and I (the girls usually get McDonalds on Thursdays and Rob and I eat leftovers -- today I added cous cous to our menu). Reread the lead for my Cirque story but run out of time to write anything else on it, and then check the message boards at the web content writing job to see that FEWER titles are available. Think about panicking, but then realize I don't really care that much.

7p.m.: Girls get home from dance with their happy meals. I remember that I had put Cash in our bathroom earlier because Hannah got her unicorn costume in the mail today and she was wearing it and he was jumping up on her trying (it looked like) to make little unipoodle babies, and then she hit him, so I put him in the bathroom where he's been since 4:30 or so. I let him out and praise him for not peeing or barfing in the bathroom, although frankly it would be a lot easier for me if Cash could actually learn to use the bathroom in the traditional way.

7:30p.m. - 8 p.m. Finish dinner. Lizzie does her math homework. Hannah tortures Cash. Rob plays the piano. Rob yells at Hannah in between stanzas of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. I tell Lizzie 14 times that she can use her number chart to figure out the subtraction problems if she needs to. She doesn't and gets about 10 of the problems wrong and has to redo them which makes her SO VERY HAPPY. I sign their homework, get their lunch boxes and other stuff out of their backpacks to be ready to repack for tomorrow. Tell them to think about what they want to wear tomorrow as I have found out by reading a note shoved at the bottom of Lizzie's homework folder that tomorrow is RED day and they should wear red. And bring in a can for the hungry people. Get girls into their jammies except Hannah wants to wear her clothes to bed. Sing songs, kiss goodnight. Sleepy time.

8:15-11 p.m. Write the cirque story, throw in another load of wash, fold the stuff that's on the dining room table. Remember halfway through the wash cycle that I've left my NEW IPOD in the pocket of my jacket/shirt. Rescue iPod, which is now in ICU buried in a pile of rice in hopes of a complete recovery. Respond to west coast email since they are still working and I'm trying to score an interview with Louis CK (a comedian). Write some web content (goal is 15 stories per week -- today I wrote only two) and then work on inputting my young adult novel that a publisher has requested. I still can't get the voice recognition software to recognize me, but it does seem to hear Cash barking so at least I know it understands dog. I need to get the book input by this weekend (it was in hard copy form back from the days we actually used paper for things...) but once I buy the mic tomorrow I'm sure it will be a breeze. Or I'll just type it in the old fashioned way. Because you know, I have so much time.

11 p.m.: Watch the news while checking facebook and emails (I get about 200 emails a day from various sources). Pick some web content stories to write tomorrow. Drink a cup of decaf and eat some crackers. Remember that I forgot to take the antibiotic for my tooth infection all day so I take two now in hopes that it will eradicate all germs while I am sleeping. And that I will not awaken at 3 a.m. to vomit.

11:30 p.m.: Let Cash out, sit on the deck while he does whatever he is doing and breathe the lovely fall air in deeply. Then remember that I have to put the clothes in the dryer.

Midnight: Start to go upstairs after putting clothes in the dryer. Remember that I need to put the cans for tomorrow's food drive on the table or we will forget them. See that Cash's water bowl is empty and wash and refill it. Remember that I need to charge my phone. Then, as long as I'm still up I check out the special values on HSN and QVC and then I see that HSN is having a game so I go online and play it and while I do not win a gift card I do get 15 percent off my purchase so I go to their site and start looking at camcorders because lizzie threw mine in the pool at the end of the summer (by mistake, I think) and I need a new one with piano recitals and drama class and dance class and Nutcracker... I find one I like but then I notice the digital cameras, many of which also take short videos and then I get confused and decide to think about it tomorrow. Then I close my eyes on the couch and fall asleep for 20 minutes or so.

12:45: Upstairs to bed, happy that Cash has not appropriated my side (which he does at least once a week) and that there are no random children in there who are suffering from headaches or had a bad dream or were just bored in their own bed. However once I'm in bed Cash jumps in, too.

1:30 a.m. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ :) again.

I realize that many of my friends have even more hectic days, so I can't imagine how any of us ever gets anything done. But we do. We're MOMS!!! ;) And tired.

Oh and if you made it down this far, please join me in congratulating my parents on their 54th anniversay which was Wednesday. Fifty four years. When I am married 54 years I will be 90 years old. But that's a post for another day.