Feeling better...

Most of my life I've had an incredible amount of good fortune. I think that's why the month of November was so jarring. Our house/cars/health have rarely had any problems. We have had to spend almost nothing on the house in years (besides optional cosmetic stuff). The cars are both a decade old, so that's just a given. And it's Fall/Winter--so of course the kids will take turns getting sick. Eleanor has been so healthy and nary a runny nose until this past Fall, so we were just lucky to go that long without her getting sick. Same with Henry. He's rarely sick. And Kitty disappearing for 3 days--pretty common occurrence for indoor-outdoor cats, as I've come to learn. So, while it was overwhelming at the time, in hindsight I see it was just...normal stuff that happened all in one month. Maybe it's better that way. I will say my concept of money is really warped now. When you have to drop close to 10K in one month --every other sum seems tiny. My car troubles were about $700 and I was like, "Oh, phew, that's not so bad."

Speaking of money and spending...it's that time of year again. When I do none of it. I can't stand to shop (except for food, which I sort of enjoy). I don't get a shopper's high that I've had some former clients describe to me. I get something more like shopper's hives. So, we're only giving photos this year (as if this were different from last year). But, rest assured the grandparents are covering the children on Christmas. Henry is already in a panic state about all the wrapped presents my mom brought this past weekend.

But I do very much enjoy one thing about Christmas giving, and that's our tradition of giving lots of money we do not have to Henry's teachers. I LOVE it. That gives me a high. Why?  Because their work is SO important and they are not compensated enough.  Because Henry's favorite teacher also moonlights at Home Depot.  Because  I'm pretty sure of all the kids in Henry's class, our son comes from the least affluent family--by a wide margin, and we are (probably) giving the most, by a wide margin.  There are few things in my life I get to feel smug about, but gifting a wad of money to the people who spend the bulk of their day with my son--that makes me happy.