long time no bloggy

No particular reason...I think the main culprit for my inactivity was obviously, Christmas stress...aaah Christmas Stres....thank goodness for you! An abstract upon which I can blame Just About Anything. Haven't blogged in ages? Christmas Stress. Haven't paid the phone bill? Christmas Stress. Gained 5 lbs? Christmas Stress. Haven't cleaned the toilet? Christmas Stress!!!
Alas, it is now mid-January (already!!?!?!) so that excuse is paling...
LGK has been blogging more and I always find him inspirational so here goes.
My "seasonal depression" (non-diagnosed btw...but I'm pretty sure it's still there - anyone who knows my genetic donors will comply) hasn't been as bad as I was worried it would be. Granted, I hates me some snow but at least the sun comes out occasionaly around here. I've also been VEEERRRY SLEEEEEEPY...but again...not an unusual thing for me. Could just be the St. Johns Wort talking, but, things could be waaaaay worse and the past few weeks I feel like I'm "kind of" getting a handle on my feelings. I'm not getting rabidly annoyed at every little thing that my Grandmother does anymore; and while we are still crammed into a very small space and essentially broke, and I sometimes wonder "what the hell have I done?" moving my family out here...things are relatively copacetic. Considering I was borderline something-cidal a month or so ago...I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.
I thought about doing a Holiday recap, but suffice to say..it ended up being ok after a rough start to the season. We've always tried to focus on the "spirit" of Christmas versus the materialistic side of course....but the truth is...Christmas SUCKS when you're BROKE! We pulled it out in style though (thanks to generous family members!)
We've been working on establishing our own traditions for the past few years (combining my families with LGK's) and this year we REALLY did...we had the best of both worlds I think, and I hope we made it nice for Oma as well. I still try very hard to be sympathetic to her world basically being "invaded" after 25 years solo.
On another holiday note: we decided yesterday to leave the Christmas tree up (it's a fake one you see, no needles to dry up and fall off). It's down in the library, a mostly unused space...and it makes Molly & I happy. Seriously, I had had a hell of a time getting into the x-mas spirit, but the day we got that tree up and decorated - it was ON! So, we're leaving it up. Changing the decorations seasonally of course. Molly's hard at work on Valentine's day ornaments as I type this. I will post pictures :) It's a harmless eccentricity (sp?) and she can always remember the year that she a year-round-holiday tree!
The past couple of months have been great for catching up with old friends too. As a matter of fact, FACEBOOK is probably the biggest reason I haven't blogged. I got waaay sucked in! All the voyeuristic appeal of Myspace but without the 12 year olds and pedophiles! I've found old friends from my brief college/acting stint and I've even gotten back in touch with my dearest and oldest "bossom friend" Juliette and her family. Reconnecting with her as "grownups" has been wonderful! Very low stress, her hubby & LGK get along too!

Friends have really been an upside to this whole moving to SL thing.

Other than that, just generally keeping busy...working for "the man", trying to keep up with "school" for the kids (by the way, please cross all your digits that our applications get accepted for the Open Classroom for next fall) Max isn't totally sold on the idea. Conspiracy theorist that he is, he's convinced that there's something fishy going on there...and that he'll be strapped to a desk and FORCED to do math for days on end (not sure WHERE he gets his paranoia!) but Molly's on board (I think) I am REALLY enthused about their cooperative program and the school seems great. No desks. Round tables. Lots of freedom of expression & choices. It's been a hard realization, but I think I'm spent on the homeschool. I think we've done a great job so far but I'm not sure how much more I am qualified to teach them...and...yes, some socialization would be a good thing for them ( I admit it!) Absolutely NO regrets about keeping them home this far, but I think one of the benefits of being "in the city" is that we have more options and I hope we can take advantage of them.

Also....teaching myself to knit. One of the challenges to being "crafty" is trying new things and staying inspired. Knitting....is awesome! I love it! and I'm constantly challenged by new stitches etc. (AND it gives me an excuse to indulge one of my addictions - YARN SHOPPING!)
Molly's a very quick study and she's been crocheting for a couple of months now too so we have been textile-dynamo's lately!!!!

I think that's it for today's disjointed/rambling installment. I'm off to don my "maniform"
and schlep some allyoucaneat breadstix!
tootles