Another Long Day

Ever had a day when everyone was crabby? At once? Oscar the Grouch times 3? That was today beginning at 4:00 p.m. They're almost ready for bed now (8:00 p.m.). They have one more day of school before the 9 day Thanksgiving vacation so I hope they have it out of their systems by then.

They're probably just tired as am I and they've all had colds. I was going from one to the next breaking up battles. Rebecca wadded up her math homework. She said it was too much. She was right but that didn't mean she shouldn't do any at all. I finally told her she was the one who'd be grounded from her recesses, not I, and let it go. She was close to meltdown for the first time in a while. I've learned when that happens to not escalate. Just leave her alone. She'll learn about consequences, she already has, but may need a little reinforcement. I'll write a note to her teacher. Incidentally, she read most of the comments about her Honor Roll and thanks you all. She was so tickled that so many people had heard about it.

So why am I sitting here? It was better to give them all a chance to get over themselves and have a little quiet time before bed. At the moment it's calm.

Thanks to all of you who sent cranberry recipes. I was a little embarrassed to admit I know next to nothing about the cranberry in its natural or dried state. It wasn't something that was native to upstate New York (or at least not anything we grew). New Jersey, I believe, is famous for cranberries.

Now I'm tackling pecans. It seems California has never heard of the soft shell pecan. I tried 3 different stores before I finally gave up and bought 2 pounds of hard shell and two nutcrackers to go with the one I already owned. The girls can have a nutcracking party this weekend. At least they're not Brazils which take a larger hammer than I own. (Usually I buy them shelled but they're like buying platinum this year). I was so spoiled during the years I lived in Tennessee and Arkansas. My brother-in-law had two huge soft shell trees in his back yard and we could rake them off the ground by the bushel. I moved back here to see $5/lb and almost fainted.

Ray had his followup doctor appointment today. All seems to be well for now. While I was waiting for him, Tim and I had coffee and then wandered around Best Buy drooling over lap tops, plasma t.v. , and the combination printer/scanner/copier/fax I'm been wishing for. The price has dropped and I bet it'll drop even more after Christmas. My printer is barely functioning (it's the feed - paper goes through crooked).

The laptop is something else again. I don't need it and can't justify it. Tim has one; I have a desktop with high speed net connection and I have no complaints. Still, I look at those neat little machines and think maybe someday. I can be so silly. A little over two years ago, I'd never used Windows and now I'm throwing around terms like I knew what I was talking about. Modem, router, all that stuff.

Brief pause. They're all pretty much settled in and I'm going to keep Ray company for a while watching CSI.

Tomorrow is another day and they'll probably wake up with all the squabbles forgotten.

Take care everyone.