I'm apparently in a fairly reticent phase, blog-wise, but I went shopping today...what the hell?

I've worn maternity clothes because I had to. Apparently- now- it's fashionable to wear them. Every single thing I tried on looked like a maternity top or a maternity dress. If I were 18 and no one would imagine that I were knocked up, I'd love the freedom of the caftan-esque, shapeless clothes that are currently all the rage. In my world? I put that stuff on and everyone assumes I'm due in September.

There was a happy ending, though. After 2 hours of searching and one *very* snarky saleswoman who caught sight of the clothes on my arm and sneered "Those don't match, sweetie."

But I have a new pair of pants, so...mission accomplished.

and my invisible jet seems to be in the shop for repairs. TMOTH has been up to his hiney in lesson planning, grade cards, and general school stress, making him less than available recently. The result is that I find myself wandering around in a daze, muttering, "laundry- no, dishes- no dinner- no, kids need baths" while accomplishing none of the above. Today being Tuesday, I launched into Wonder Woman mode this morning, made it to the gym, to the shrink, to the grocery store, and to Target before wrapping up my day "off" with 45 minutes of library volunteering before picking Harry up. Now? I'm done. My golden bracelets are scratched, I've lost my crown, and my perfectly-coiffed 'do is limp. I'm ready to be Diana Prince for a while. I have time for one cup of tea (Tension Tamer- nectar of the gods in the pre-cocktail hours) before we're off to get Molly. The weather is lovely, so that means the kiddos will want to play at her school before heading home- good for the moment, bad in the "post-arrival home" times period, since they'll be hungry as hell and I won't have had the time I usually spend to fix dinner- since I'll burn that time on the playground. Sunny days are so rare though that I don't want to waste this one. It's very "All Summer in a Day" around here this time of year and I'll be dammed if my kids will be the ones locked in the closet- you know?

H is being evaluated once again by the Occupational Therapist, though it was a relief to meet with her and the teacher and hear the OT say that he doesn't seem to be struggling as much as the classroom teacher imagines. Methinks his teacher doesn't know what to do with my wiggly(though I've started calling him "effervescent"), wicked smart little boy. It's surprising to me that someone who's been at it this long would be thrown by a smart kid, but Harry can be surprising at many junctures- code for "I never know what that damn kid's going to do or say." Today's discovery? King Cobras. They're BIGGER than regular Cobras! And MORE DEADLY! And cooler all around because they could beat a Black widow or a tarantula or even GODZILLA in a fight! In 6 weeks, I'll know more about King Cobras than any grown woman should.

Tea's nearly gone, Molly's waiting, and I still have to put a load of laundry in. Time to polish my bracelets and zip up my knee boots.

Let me know if you find that lasso? Thanks.

Last night was Harry's last soccer game. It's gotten to the point that we had to start at 5:45 because it's dark by 6:45. Last night, it was *pitch* dark walking back to the car, with just a little silver slipper of a moon. If it weren't so damn cold, it would have been quite the moment. Harry scored a goal (3 this season) and was in pretty good spirits, except that he didn't get to watch the college soccer game for as long as he wanted to. Both of the kids went to bed really easily, which rocked. Tonight's the school pumpkin carving event (a thing unique to Pumpkin Festival Land). Molly has a bad cough, so I'll be making a doctor visit today, and I have a workshop tomorrow that mandates she be healthy. (I cannot do sick kids on workshop days.) Pulled in the last of the tomato harvest yesterday, so the ugly veggies will be going to work today. (Someone there will do something with them, I'm sure.)

All in all, just another fall day in paradise.

Oh- and Molly wants to be a pink cowboy ballerina for Halloween. I can't *wait* to see how I pull that off.

Happy late birthday to md1016 and wonderful day today to snacktime. Two lovely ladies that I feel lucky to count as friends.

This article from Radar hits just a little too close to home- especially considering that my sister and I used to play item #1- Jarts- at twilight while my parents were having parties when we were kids. I never understood why I was always appointed to go stand at the target end to "check and see which ones end up in the circle." Even sadder? I always went. Obviously, there was a bit of Darwin at work there.

That's what's going on. There's just too much for me to share it all effectively. So, to summarize, this story about the teacher in space leading her first class sent me right back to high school where I heard someone talking about the Challenger exploding when I was coming down the stairs to go to biology. I choked up thinking that, for Hunter Frye (the kid featured in the story), that isn't a part of his reality at all.

I'm doing a workshop this week in a school that has this totally automated "bathroom of the future" thing going on. Everything- lights, flushing, paper towels...they all just do their thing on their own. Makes me feel like a widget on an assembly line- plus it's just freaky when the lights go off while you're still, um, *engaged*- you know?

Took the kids to Storyland last weekend. Camped, had a bear in our campsite, went three days without a shower, got cranky...you know, the usual.

And the Candidate-O-Rama continues with my new total at a whopping 47 points- one Obama staffer (7 points because he actually *called* first- so that's worth bonus points because he was calling to make an appointment) and an Obama speaking event for which I gave myself extra points. (15) I was 10 feet from the man, for pete's sake. It deserved more points than the time I stood in the back of a 700 person auditorium to hear Edwards talk.