Wow!

I'm not quite sure what to think! For the most part, Thanksgiving was without a hitch, which is really something since we had 2 family dinners that day. Black Friday was a shopping success, I came away with some great deals and most of my shopping for the kids done. Saturday we went to a train show and saw Santa, and Buddy lost his first baby tooth. It was very nice to have a quiet and mostly uneventful weekend!
I have been invited for a visit by a friend in Portland, which (hopefully) after the holidays I will be able to accept. I haven't had a kid-free weekend in who-knows-how-long, so I am really looking forward to it. It will be a vision quest of sorts, a trip to study my spirituality and renew my spirit. It's good to have a friend I can count on, because my religious views are not exactly conventional. That's a topic for another time :)

Things I am thankful for

1. Friends and family who love me for who I am, not who they want me to be. You know who you are.
2. My children, even when they are driving me crazy.
3. My dogs, who really do love me unconditionally.
4. The parents of the girls in my troop who have been so supportive of my efforts.
5. The girls in my troop, they sure know how to make me laugh!
6. Not meaning to sound conceited, I am thankful for the talents that I have been blessed with.
7. The internet, without which I would probably go crazy with boredom.
8. The sun, the moon, and the stars.
9. My sense of humor, without which I would probably be serving time for homicide.
10. Most importantly, my wonderful husband, who even on the worst of days lends me his strength and still thinks I'm beautiful.

Why do I bother?

As you know, I am a Girl Scout leader. I have been one for more than 4 years. I love volunteering, but lately I've been asking myself why I bother. Between constantly changing policies, gossiping adults, and impossible parents, I have just about had enough. I try to teach my girls to have the benefit of the doubt and to treat all people with dignity, but these lessons fall sorely short on some of their parents. Don't get me wrong, the majority of the parents in my troop treat me really well and, in fact, some of them downright spoil me. I try to remember that, but more and more lately the negativity of one parent has worn at me, no matter how hard I try to be with the situation. It has finally come to a head and the parent has informed me that she's tired of MY immaturity and is going to place her daughter in a different troop. I say good riddance, but at the same time I feel like a failure. I failed because of an email I accidentally sent to the wrong person. I did what I don't ever like to do, harm another person. I know I'll pay for it in Karma. Perhaps my lesson in all this is to take a lot more slow breaths before I do anything, and to especially check WHO I'm sending email to.

Murphy's Law

I am a BIG believer in Murphy's Law. You know, the whole if-it-can-go-wrong-it-will kind of philosophy. Over the years I've added a few Murphy's Laws to the list, but the most recent one I have discovered is that if I don't clean the living room, my mother-in-law will show up unannounced. And this one never seems to fail. As an experiment over the last few weeks I have made sure that on the weekend my living room is clean. The couches aren't covered with clutter, the coffee table is sorta organized, the carpets are vacuumed, the toys put away. She doesn't show. This weekend was a little more hectic than usual with Mr. D and I watching Blizzcon on pay-per-view (Yes, we're geeks. Get over it.) and a Girl Scout event for Via. I started to clean yesterday, but quickly lost interest and -yes, you guessed it- she shows up. How does she know?! Mr. D has asked her several times to call before she comes over to no avail. I am almost to the point where I don't want to be home on the weekends. Oy.