candy muggers!

This year my sons invited friends to trick-or-treat with us. Near the end of the evening, my oldest two split off, to walk the only girl in the group home. On the way, some kid ran up, knocked my 12-year-old to the ground, and stole his bag of candy.

My oldest son gave chase for a while, but realized just in time that if he caught the two kids, it would be two against one. They came home, but not before a girl who witnessed the whole thing offered my candyless son a bag of candy to make up for his losses.

As I type, my husband is visiting the home of the mugger, with the three kids. Holy crap on a cracker!

crazy math text word problem kids

Maybe if you're a math wiz this isn't a problem; every time I read a word problem with one of these crazy names, it shorts out my brain...
Julissa runs a marathon? Robill threw 42 rocks? Monifa raked leaves? Thank you, Saxon Math, for making Earth math accessible to the alien population.

screening the media

Not even 8:00 a.m., and already I've done something that seems like a total waste of time. Since the boys are sick, they did not scamper out to the driveway to get to the newspaper comics before me. While #4 Son tossed his waffles on the living room couch and rug, and #3 Son made his breakfast cheeseburger, I lounged over the paper.

The Washington Times has a new comic, "Bliss", which the boys and I enjoyed yesterday. Today, however, it made me pitch the whole comics section. Man checks into a hotel, and the desk manager asks "Do you need extra keys, or are you going to stay in all night watching porn?"

Can I say it? I am tired of having to screen every damn piece of media that enters my house.

So what AM I supposed to make a priority, anyway?

Today we were still getting over a cold. 3 of the boys are still pretty wiped out, so we didn't do school. Instead, I told them to rest and eat chicken soup. I did some work, some housework, an interview, and shopped for Halloween costume junk. After they all went to bed, I made these awesome bloodshot eyeball devilled eggs for my husband's office Halloween luncheon tomorrow.


Cool, fun to make, and he'll be pleased, but at this point in the day I wonder...what did I do today that was worth doing? How much of it was a total waste of time?

Talked to a friend tonight about how she'll be shuttling kids to the local high school for the next 18 years, nonstop. Is that a waste of time? Or is it just an important part of being a mom, for her, right now? Is it possible for me to tell the difference in my own life? Or are the things that I think are important just getting in the way of my being a good mom & wife? Heck if I know.