Octoberfest

Fall is supposed to be a reflective time--you know, the waning of the year, etc, etc. What it boils down to for me, mostly, has been dealing with kids more in the dark, since the sun rises later now, which I guess is good for being reflective, if I could remember the things that I'd been ruminating on in the dark. Sigh. It's also been a really busy month for us and, since I haven't posted in over two weeks, I thought I'd give an update on what's going on with us:

Work

Same old same old, pretty much. DPI apparently lost a report I gave them 2 months ago, which totally freaked me out (and made me look bad, of course, since the implication was that I didn't ever give it to them.) But on the positive side, the new hire at work is a woman about my own age with 4 kids, one of whom is 4, like Ginny--and she's super-nice. The site visits to our schools are about to start up, so I'll get to travel about, making nice with school folks, and trying not to say inappropriate things to them (hard nowadays, because I hardly ever talk to anybody, so I blurt out dumb stuff sometimes, as in "It's so good to be here--where did you get that belt?? It looks like a Gucci which I can't imagine could be the case in this god-forsaken economically depressed hellhole of a town!")

Family

Ginny had her birthday, which went well--she got a bike, which is both scary and inspiring, as well as the subject of many a tantrum, as the chain tends to pop off at inopportune moments. Damn Wal-mart Chinese crap.

In fact,this is a big birthday month for my whole family--Happy Birthday to Lynn, Rob, Dale, Larry, Pop-Pop, and...me. (Sigh--I'm getting too old for this.)

In other news, my two of my extended family members did something really crazy a few weeks ago. I won't elaborate, but the whole family has been in a tizzy about it.

One of our cousins lost a preterm baby this month--a very diffult time for them.

Dan is going to have another eye procedure done in a few weeks, which will suck, as he has to go under general anesthesia. But at least we won't have to battle the constant winter eye goop.


Extracurricular

So I joined the choir, which is fun, and Adam has had to put the kids to bed on Wednesday nights when I go to practice.(BWHAHAHAH).

We accidentally got our Sunday School teacher in trouble, when we blew up over politics in the class again, and were a little more vehement than we intended. (Had to call people back and apologize. Not good.)

But the main thing we've been doing over the month has been gearing up for (read: cleaning, fixing, and cleaning) Ginny's birthday party (yes, there WAS a bouncer and no broken arms) and last weekend's Halloween party. We are not the shining social successes we'd like to be, but at least now our friends and coworkers owe us an invitation or two. (Right? Isn't that how it works? I guess I shouldn't wait by the phone with baited breath...)

So it's been a busy month, with lots of stuff going on. If only the Robocalls would stop, especially when I'm trying to get the kids to bed. Then again, if they did, I might not find out WHAT KAY HAGEN IS HIDING...

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

John Steinbeck once said that there are only really two stories: Man's Fall from grace, and Cain & Abel. The more I think about it, the more I have to say that he was right.

In creating this little mini-Eden of ours, I have to acknowledge that the human version comes up short: we can barely afford this place (not-so-big as it is), and it's still not finished. Then there's the location--middle of nowhere has its perks, but it also has its downsides, especially when you're a stay-at-home mom.

But more intriguing to me lately, as an only child, is the issue of sibling rivalry, and how it is playing out in our family. It's obviously early days yet to make any pronouncements about how close our kids are, or how competitive they are for our attention--who knows how things will turn out in the long run? But I do know that Dan's first word in the morning (after "NO!") is "NINNY!!!" and Ginny loves to slip into Dan's room in the morning before he's awake because she can't wait any longer to play with him (that is, wrestle with him. That's his main form of play.)

I also know that poor Ginny has had to vegetate alone on the couch in the afternoon, against her will, while I'm holding and cajoling Dan as he goes through his witching
hour, when nobody and nothing but Mommy Mommy Mommy will do. I know that Ginny has had to watch Dan tear up her drawings and books and knock down her precious Lego towers--and she's definitely not above fetching him a swipe or two when she thinks nobody's looking. (Although she can also be infinitely patient with his hair-pulling and even the biting that goes along with it sometimes. You'll notice that her picture shows Dan drooling and pulling out her hair--did you notice that her symbol for Dan is the sun, and her symbol for herself is the moon? I swear I didn't tell her to do that.) I have seen my children literally fighting over and beating each other with a large zucchini. I have also seen the little one bite a child who took a toy away from his sister.

I don't actually know what to make of the whole sibling situation, except to say that my little Cain and Abel are both alive and well for the moment. And perhaps, just perhaps, if the original siblings had been allowed to beat the stuffing out of each other once in awhile, then the murderous rage that lurks in us all might have been allayed...or maybe not. (Who knows--maybe Abel ALWAYS got the big zucchini?) Above all, I do believe that there's something to the idea that we are all our brother's keeper. When Adam and I are gone, these two will have each other, for better or worse. But I'm hoping for better...