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Apparently pomegranates are one of nature’s laxatives. I wish I’d known that before I allowed my four kids to split an entire pomegranate between them.

’nuff said.

I got to be the sick one today. Although fortunately I got off very lightly compared to anyone else. I never actually vomited. I suspect some of that may be due to the vomit-avoidance training I had during the morning-sick period of four pregnancies. I’m still tired and achy. All day I’ve just wanted to curl up in a comfy ball. Fortunately Howard the wonderful allowed me to do just that for several hours. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel better because I have many many things to do.

Gleek has blankies. She has had blankies ever since she was 9 months old and began carrying around the pink thermal receiving blanket that we recieved as a gift. Being foresighted and intelligent, I bought several more of exactly the same type. That way we had 4 blankies and I could wash some while she carried others. Then I noticed that she was carrying her blankie around by the satin tag. That one spot on the blankie was getting dirty and I could tell it would wear out fast. So I cut off the tag and sewed four pink satin ribbons on to the corners of each of her blankies. Then she had lots of ribbons to rub against her face while she snuggled. All was well. The blankets were dragged, spilled upon, vomited upon, left outside, and generally mistreated for years. When Gleek was almost 3 I noticed that all of the blankies were showing signs of serious wear. Gleek was still extremely dependent upon them. So I bought 3 new pink thermal blankies and sewed new ribbons onto the corners. Gleek happily adopted these new blankets and cheerfully let me get rid of the battered ones.

That was two years ago. The “new” blankies have been dragged, spilled upon, vomited upon, bled upon, left outside, used as capes, used as bags, and generally mistreated. They are faded and fraying. Gleek still sleeps with them every night. She is smart enough now to know that there are three and if at all possible will carry around all three of them simultaneously. This means I can’t always have one clean, but it triples the likely hood of being able to find one at bedtime. Gleek has grown up some too. We no longer take blankies to church, friends’ houses, or school. She accepts that they are only for at home. I see no reason to deprive her of this small scrap of security before she is ready to abandon them herself. Especially since I regularly see how the possession of a blankie allows her to gain possession of herself and her feelings.

For years I’ve had a secret. See when I bought those three new blankets? I actually bought four blankets. The fourth one sat in the top of the closet for “just in case.” I’m not sure what the case was that I was waiting for. I think originally I was concerned about reducing the number of blankies from four to three. After that, I forgot it was there. Periodically I’d clean out that closet and find it. Every time I’d stare at it, consider getting rid of it, decide not to decide, and put it back.

Yesterday all four kids had a romping game of hide and seek all over the house. They had a blast. I was busy and not paying much attention until Gleek came down to me wide-eyed. She was holding a plastic package. She knew exactly what it was. It was a brand new vibrant pink version of the faded and worn blankies she carries around every day. She stared at me with wide, hopeful eyes. I opened the package and gave it to her to keep. Today she came down with stomach flu and one of the kind TLC things I did for her was to sew ribbons on the four corners of her new blankie. It looks so strange and bright bundled up in her arms with the worn out ones. It may be a tactical error. Now one of her blankies is obviously different than the others. I may have an upset Gleek demanding that I search the house for the NEW one. But She was so soft and sick today and she loves it so much. I’ll have to try to remember that if we ever come to a frantic search.

Howard came home from D&D day because he has the same stomach bug that Gleek has. And the relatives who were going to stay the night with us have opted to stay elsewhere, much to the disappointment of all my kids and all their kids.

My good day kind of fizzled into a blah day.

I had a plan for today. I was going to escape my house and my kids to go and be part of D&D day at Dragon’s Keep. I didn’t know if I was going to get to play, but I knew I’d get to hang out with gaming geeks including Howard. I was looking forward to it. I went to bed early last night so that I could breakfast the kids and make them get all their work done before I had to leave. The plan was working well. I was full of energy this morning. The kids were working. I was dancing around the kitchen and wiping counters. Every minute made the house cleaner. I was giving Kiki info so that she and her friend could babysit effectively while I was gone. I’d sent Gleek up to make her bed. I gradually became aware that rather than making her bed, she’d been lying still in it for about 45 minutes. Gleek lying still = sick. I was in denial and went along with the morning as planned. Then she threw up. I can’t leave a vomiting child to go play games. So my plans for today have been rearranged.

The good news is that all the other kids have each had a turn with this stomach bug, so this should be the last round for me. The other good news is that this time the child had only a few bites of pancake rather than a stomach full of Halloween candy. Kiki, kind soul that she is, still wants me to go. She wants me to be able to have fun. I think she also feels that being babysitter to an ill child would be an adventure of sorts. Unfortunately Dragon’s Keep is a full 20-30 minutes from my house. That means I’m not nearby in a crisis. I can’t go that far. However I will probably allow Kiki to have a babysitting adventure for a short time while I run a couple of errands.

I still intend to have a good day. I’m just not entirely sure what I’ll do to make it good. Having the house clean helps. Maybe I’ll haul out The Queen’s Necklace or Star Munchkin and make some of the kids play with me. We’ll see.

Last night I attended a Ballet class. I’ve been needing something for awhile. I wanted something physical that would get me out of the house and moving sans children. It was Howard’s game night, so I left Kiki in charge of the other three kids and went for a free trial class.

It was wonderful to get moving, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with the class. Part of the dissatisfaction was that I really wanted to learn the movements, but the class kept moving on too quickly for me. That could be alleviated by at home practice. Also, watching myself in the mirror, not so fun. I’m rounder than I should be and not very flexible. My mind kept supplying unflattering comparisons to the hippo ballet at the end of Disney’s Fantasia. Part of the point of taking a class is to motivate me to shape up and slim down, so I guess I should count that as a success for the class. The class never did get my heart pumping, so I didn’t get that post-exercise buzz. I think that is a result of the teacher having to switch between teaching basic steps and trying to get us moving. I’m not as stiff and sore as I expected to be today. Last night I was ready to try something else instead, like yoga maybe. I’m still going to do some free trials at other types of classes, but I’m not ready to completely give up on ballet yet. Particularly when I can just show up whenever I have time, and pay per class attended.

Upon my return home I learned that leaving Kiki in charge also had mixed results. Some of the relaxation of getting out is negated if I have to do emergency mopping when I return. BUT all the kids were alive and safe and lessons were learned, so no lasting harm done.

It is the time of year once again when peer pressure abounds in the writing community. Every online writer must ask herself, “will I join NaNoWriMo* this year?” Those who do join are all excited and seek to recruit others. Those who don’t, feel compelled to explain why.

I’m in that second category. There may come a year where I can take a month and put writing first. I may be able to really dive in and write thousands of words in a day. This is not that year. It will probably not be that year until my youngest child is over the age of 10. I have too many other things in my life that are more important to me than writing 50,000 words in a month. I admire those who have the time and drive to do it, but that isn’t me this year. This year I will have to be content with mailing out hundreds of schlock books. A secondary goal is for me to do a final revision on my story in progress and select an idea to be my next work in progress. Maybe I’ll even attempt to write in my blog daily for the month of November. Having writing in my brain is good. If nothing else then NaNoWriMo has accomplished that much for many many people.

*NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. Writers are challenged to produce a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. As far as I know the only prize is a sense of accomplishment and a jpeg you can put on your website.

I have approximately 12 days until the books arrive. Two weeks until the work days and party. There are so many things left to do. Sales have done well enough that we’re past the financial panic. That is good. Last April we mailed out about 1800 books. So far this fall 1325 books have been ordered. I’d really like to hit 2000, but I doubt that will happen. At the current rate of about 12 books per day, I can expect about 156 more books to sell. Hopefully there will be a last minute spike in book orders.

We had our annual orgy of candy. The kids had fun. Never let it be said that Americans are not generous. My kids came home with piles of candy. It can definitely be said that Americans are wasteful.

Our trick or treat crew started out with 5 kids and three adults. (Link’s best friend and his parents came back to town for a visit and trick or treating.) By house three, the older kids were seriously out-distancing poor Patches. I stayed behind to walk more slowly with him, while the older kids dashed from house to house. Gleek got to be one of the older kids this year, much to her delight. Patches hit about 7 houses and then declared that his hands were cold. Since temperatures were already sub-freezing, I suggested that maybe he’d like to go home and eat his candy. I deposited him with Howard at the house, and went to catch up with the others. By the time I’d chased them down, Kiki had peeled off to stay with a group of girls and trick or treat with them. Then there were three. A few houses later, Gleek began complaining of the cold. She decided that going home sounded nice. I left Link to continue on with his friend and parents. They stayed out for another 20 minutes, then arrived back in the warm. Kiki was out much longer, but had loads of fun. (This paragraph has me wanting to compose a little poem ala 5 little ducks, only with 5 little trick or treaters.)

For me Halloween is exhausting. It goes like this: Scramble to get kids fed and costumed in the morning. Drop Link at school. More costume scramble. Drop Kiki and Gleek at school. Home for awhile. Kindergarten costume parade. Home for awhile. Pick up Gleek. School-wide costume parade. Home for awhile. Pick up Link from school. Home for awhile. Pick up Kiki from school. Drive to a friend’s company for a mini halloween event. Go back home. Scramble to feed the kids something with actual protien in it. Scramble to reassemble costumes, kids, buckets, & glow-sticks for trick or treating. Accompany kids for trick or treating. Go back home. Answer the door a lot. Negotiate with each child the amount of candy they can actually keep. Make tired and sugar-hyper children go to bed. No wonder I’m exhausted by the end of it all.

The one piece that I really enjoy is being outdoors at night. I love that everywhere we go in the neighborhood, we see people we know. I get to walk in the dark, feel the cool air, and wave to my friends, who are also accompanying their children. I love this neighborhood.

Final note: Did you know that if you take glowing glow-sticks and put them into the freezer, it slows the chemical reactions enough that they stop glowing? When you pull it out, the reactions start up again. My kids have made glow-sticks last for a week (or more) by pulling them out for an hour of after-dark play, then putting them back.

Each day is full of small events. Many times these small events don’t even make it onto my adult radar. Small events don’t seem to matter much…unless you’re a small person. I have four small people. To them today was special.

Patches had a turn with stomach flu today. I learned that he is the politest sick kid I’ve ever seen. Several times today I came to check on him. He would be playing quietly and tell me he was fine. Then as an aside he would mention that he’d thrown up into his pot. I’d check and sure enough, the pot needed washing. He is only 3. When Link was three, he would run away from the pot screaming because he believed that somehow the pot made him throw up. Despite being sick, Patches played quietly and watched movies for most of the day. He did need some extra snuggles and a nap. Once again I realized what a wonderful sweet kid he is. Extra hugs are in order.

Gleek had a rough day at school. She was inclined to be weepy all day. She expressed this by lingering behind in the hall when her class went to the computer lab. Her teacher found her there and escorted her back to the classroom where she had to sit quietly and miss computers. On the way home from school Gleek told me about this sadly because it will be a whole week before she’ll get to go to computers again. I sympathized out loud and was quietly glad that she is unlikely to pull that particular stunt again. She was also very sad because her friend R told secrets to a classmate, but not to Gleek. I really wanted to scoop her up and snuggle her, but unfortunately I was also toting Patches and his pot, so that logistics were tricky. The rest of the day was better for her because she got to play at a friend’s house and hold some puppies. Warm furry animals have a magic to them. I got to hold one of the puppies too.

Link got new black tennis shoes today. They are the first pair of brand new shoes he has had in more than two years. We’ve all been wearing lots of hand me downs. We’ll continue to wear mostly hand me downs, but we can now sprinkle a few new things in. Link was very pleased with his shoes. He wore them all afternoon. He happily demonstrated their stomping capabiblites. He loves the little toy that came with the shoes. It’s a little action figure which apparently is used to advertise this particular brand of shoe. It’s one of these guys. Personally I find a severed toe action figure rather disturbing, but Link likes it. He really likes that it has magnets on it’s feet thus can stand sideways on the fridge or other metal surfaces. Kiki and Link spent an hour carefully cutting all the pictures of these action figures off of the box the shoes came in.

Kiki got to go to school an hour early today. She had a pile of make up work to turn in and had to get it there in enough time for the teacher to submit final grades before the deadline. She worked hard to get it all done and I loved seeing the satisfaction on her face. She also loved the chance to just hang out with her teacher and be a before school helper.

But the biggest event of the day was our annual pumpkin carving. We managed to grow four pumpkins this year, so each of the kids got one. They each had fun using the little carving tools to make faces. I love that they’re mostly old enough to do the work themselves. I remember when pumpkin carving meant that I had to do all the carving while the kids watched or wandered away at will. So we have our row of Jack-o-lanterns. And we’re ready for tomorrow which will contain large events along with the inevitable small ones.