Thankful

No one can pull at your emotions quite like children. Particularly your own.

On Tuesday, I was pulled repeatedly. And I was TIRED. But by the end of the day (and after having escaped the melée for a few hours to go to orchestra rehearsal), I promised myself that, rather than dwell on what an awful day it was, I'd sit down and write about my children. Not the "oh my goodness get down off the coffee table!" or "You're five feet from the bathroom and you can't be bothered to just sit yourself on the potty and go?" moments, because I already talk about those enough.

Of course, I didn't do that on Tuesday. I tried to do it yesterday but as my pies cooled, I was interrupted by Meatball, calling for nighttime milk. He has yet ANOTHER cold. You'd think that a breastfeeding toddler would have some sort of immunity to something, but then, he also spends an inordinate amount of time putting things in his mouth. We also need to do a better job, for our part, of washing his hands before he eats. The Boy is doing quite well in that department because he washes his hands after using the bathroom.

So now we're onto today, which is also Thanksgiving Day.

Rewind 1 year. We had just gotten The Boy out of the hospital in New Jersey for the last time. His stay there was unexpected, as was the timing of our move. We were a mess. Everything was awful.

Now? The Boy is better. That's the most important thing. And Meatball is happy and healthy and doing very well. They're happy. We're happy. Even though we're not yet where we want to be professionally, we'll be fine soon enough.

I love Thanksgiving, despite having a plethora of negative associations with it such as hospitals and illnesses. I love being able to spend the time in the kitchen concocting delicious food. It is therapeutic--everyone else knows that they'll get to eat it, so they entertain the children for me. I made pies--pumpkin, pecan, cherry, and apple. The cherry pie was with my own pastry crust, and the apple pie was from scratch, so I hope it's good. Pecan pie isn't that hard to make, as I found out. Turkey went in the oven this morning and will cook all day. Mom made stuffing and is working on sweet potatoes.

I'm thankful for my family with whom I will share this feast. I'm thankful for my parents for saving our family as they did when they took us in and continue to have us here. I'm thankful for my siblings for their help and for their being so generous with our parents' attention. I'm particularly thankful for my husband, who is an amazing person and an amazing father. And for my charming, intelligent, interesting children.

And nothing says "thankful" like a report of no more cancer.

I'm sure I'll have more to say later, and pictures to post, but right now I need to get to work.