In light of my recent grumbles and heartaches (eh, that’s a little strong, but I’ll use it anyway, too lazy to drag out the thesaurus) it’s time for a touch of attitude adjustment on my part. Here is the tale of Good Good Stuff:

The Good Good Stuff List originates from a float trip at church camp camp back in college. I was in a canoe with my best friend Rachel and it should have been a fun, easy day, one to kick back and get a tan. As it turned out, it was a horrible day to be on the river – it rained, we had nothing to get dry with – we got cold, our matches wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t work, we got colder, and grumpier and started to get nasty with each other.

Out of the blue we decided to make a list of things that became the list of Good Good Stuff. The list began with the obvious – warm socks, dry clothes, hot shower, off the damn river, no more kids at camp, a warm drink?¢‚Ǩ¬¶. Then it moved into getting a hot date, getting an A on a paper, not burning dinner. Then we hit on number one. I was hesitant, it sounded a little strange, but this was my best friend, I could tell her. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìUm. You know. There?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s something about a guy driving a stick shift ?¢‚Ǩ¬¶?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
I got no further. She sat straight up. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìOh! Oh! That is SO sexy!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù
Which made us laugh. Which made us forget how much the river sucked that day. Guys driving stick shifts has been number one on the Good Good Stuff list for thirteen years running.

Today’s Good Good Stuff:

I realize that I can’t control Alex’s sleep (all at once anyway), so I went to bed when he went to bed last night. Or at least I tried to, I was at least in bed trying to sleep for at least two more hours than normal. Still a long hard night, but better with the extra time in bed.

Alex is learning how to fall asleep on his own. He’s done it four whole times now. Which is beautiful to me. We’ve tried to let him fall asleep on his own, and he gets so close, but can’t quite do it alone. I feel like cheering each time he manages to do it, I wish he knew how proud of him I was for learning something that’s STILL so hard for me to do.

Emily, over here, is working on my new websites today, so hopefully they’ll be up by tomorrow.

It’s the first day of school at my old job. It’s strange to not be there, I would have been tenured today. Good luck to all my friends out there, take care of my kiddos, I miss them, and I miss you too!