Thankful

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. First and foremost, my wonderful husband and beautiful children, but that almost goes without saying. It takes a lot to make a life run well, and to have a little fun along the way. While this year has had its bumps in the road, I'm thankful for the following:

- My parents, especially my mom, who still wants an email from me every morning just to make sure I'm okay
- My brother Ryan, who is one of my best friends and is marrying the amazing Allison
- My in-laws, Fillis and John, who dispel every in-law stereotype
- Rachel, Jon, Nate and Evie, who will soon be far away but always in our hearts
- For discectomies
- For the ability to express myself through my blog, facebook and Twitter, and for the communities who respond to my random thoughts and epiphanies (and for my iPhone for giving me constant connectivity)
- For two supportive bosses, who praise me by saying I am a "fully formed person" and seeing potential in me that I didn't know I had
- For the MBTA, which despite my constant griping, provides me with an efficient, budget and environmentally friendly way to get to work each day
- For the JCC Early Learning Center and for the Bowen After School Care Program for letting me work while not just taking care of my children, but helping them learn and grow
- For our amazing synagogue community, which encourages me so much
- For Glee, Gossip Girl and most things Bravo for providing me a bit of escapism
- For husbands who like to cook but still let us go out to eat, for blanket and blue boxes of vanilla soy milk and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, for headbands and early reader books and the Disney Channel
- For Maidpro and Massage Envy, which help me keep my sanity
- For online shopping, which makes life so much easier
- For the friends that I don't see often enough in person, but who make it feel like you've never been apart

For this and so much more, I'm very thankful. What about you?

Funky Month

November has been a bit of a drag. Not a lot of exciting plans, lots of sick days. It's left me in a bit of a funk. I function best when I have something to look forward to, and while I do have some exciting things ahead (staycation in December, Paris in February, California in July), it's all too far away for now. But with Thanksgiving finally upon us and Hanukkah just a week away, I'm getting getting past my funk and looking forward to the end of the year craziness.

Here's the catch up:
- Halloween was a total bust - both kids had fevers and couldn't go trick-or-treating. Hannah also missed a special program at religious school, so it was a really tough day all around. Fortunately Max got better quickly and was back at school after another day of rest, but Hannah ended up having strep throat. She took too long to recover, and so we had the fun rounds of blood work and chest x-rays. Just as she finally felt better, Max again got sick, this time taking down Marc as well. But, a few weeks have gone by, and virtually knock on wood, everyone is fine now.
- I had a lovely day attending our synagogue's Sisterhood annual donor brunch and then our rabbi's son's bris. It was great to have so many uninterrupted adult conversations with my TE friends, since typically we're trying to take care of our children at the same time.
- Marc has been really busy with a few different projects that he can tell you about. It's meant a lot of evenings out of the house, or on the phone and the computer, but I'm really proud of him for the excellent work he's been doing, and I know there are more good things to come.
- My back is continuing to be an on-again off-again issue. Very frustrating and disconcerting. The biggest problem seems to be carrying the almost three year old - I really can't do it. But sometimes I really want to, so it's a difficult balancing act for me.
- After years of thinking about it, I finally decided to try a keratin treatment on my hair. The jury's still out on this one - it doesn't look different at all, but it's blow drying in half the amount of time. I'm waiting for a really humid, rainy day to really test it. I did an express treatment, which meant I couldn't wash it for 24 hours, so it's not the full plunge, and therefore may not be as effective. We shall see.
- And not to be remiss: date night with Marc at 51 Lincoln and LimmudBoston, two massages, a play date, Hannah going to Bright Horizons, Fillis staying with us to watch Max on a teacher work day, religious school parent-teacher conference, lots of synagogue-related committee meetings, a birthday party, dentist appointment, serendipitously catching up with a high school friend now living in Philadelphia over coffee here in Newton, and lots of good developments at work. Phew.

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving, filled with lots of love and good food.