When you can see the entire moon shining even though it's only (officially) a crescent or half-moon, it's due to the phenomenon of earthshine.  The earth, illuminated by the sun, illuminating the moon.  The moon, having seen a well-known popular movie, whispers back:  "You complete me."

• Today I think that the Dixie Chicks totally screwed up "Landslide" and they should have left it alone.


• The same comment applies, replacing "Dixie Chicks" with virtually any band and "Landslide" with virtually any recent remake.


• Today I think that I am starting to get early onset of osteoarthritis in my knees and should maybe see a doctor.


• Today I think that head lice suck.  With 13+11+9+7+7=47 years of child-rearing behind me, I was lucky to have avoided their arrival this long.  It should have been longer.


• Today I think that being a stay-at-home wife can really really suck when it comes to trying to balance who does what.  He brings home the check, so I do everything else?


• Today I also think that being a stay at home wife can really rock when I remember that even when I brought home the check, I did everything else then, too.


• Today I think that having Christmas at home with your children for the first time in almost-ever (instead of traveling to the grandparents) can be really really wonderful.


• Same as above, only add exhausting, trying, and frustrating.


• Today I think that my house will never be clean - but then I remind myself that someday the children will be gone, the house will be remodeled, decorated, and spotless, and I will miss today.


• Today I think that regret is a wasted emotion.  I also thought that yesterday, and I will think that tomorrow.


• Today I think that I am one of the luckiest people I know.  So many of the kids' friends' parents are divorced - so many others are so unhappy.  We may not be on the cover of "Romance Weekly", but I know we love each other.


• Today I think it is hard to raise children who understand sacrifice, thrift, and selflessness.


• Today I wish I was a better person.

Hello all.  I apologize that I have not taken the time to respond to all comments or leave comments at your sites yet.  I am limiting my time online, although I have visited a few and thought of many others. 

I wanted to clarify that my rehab was really designed to cure me of my blog-addiction.  As long as I continue to breathe and move about the world with relative freedom, I am sure that there will be great drama and occasional angst in my life.  None of it is serious.  Many of my friends and acquaintances here have much larger crosses to bear.  I am healthy (if not as fit as I would like ;op ), my children are healthy, and my marraige is arguably viable.

In fact, not 15 minutes after I completed and posted "Fear" my husband woke up, came downstairs, and proceeded to behave in a decidedly silly (and slightly romantic) manner by dancing me around and trying to tear off my robe, much to the delight of small children.  Of course, I still haven't had sex for months, but hey...it's all relative.

Anyway, I just wanted to be honest.  I believe I am blessed in so many ways, and I only hope that I can be a blessing to others, either by sharing my own experiences or by offering encouragement, support, and condolences when needed.

Regardless of your religious affiliation, I hope that this holiday season offers you peace, hope, and prosperity.

Love, Alt

Rehab is mostly over.  I can now go online on my own recognisance.  But now I find that I am like a college-kid.  Visiting home to find that it isn't.  Not really.  Not anymore.

I've always come across so negative in writing.  I once went back and read all of my postings and rated them as positive or negative.  They came up about 50/50, which surprised me.  But maybe I was too generous.

I'm not really that negative in thought - but I do have a tendancy to take the opposite side.  I think in greys - almost NEVER black & white.  So it's easy for me to appear to be arguing or sad-sacking when I think I'm just shining a flashlight about.  Once a debater...

So I'm back, but I'm not sure where.  Soon I will visit all of my tblog buddies and catch up.  I will review my links and try to pare 40-something to a more realistic and reflective number.

I'll post once a week or as the mood strikes me, not once a day or more out of compulsion.

And I'll remember why I moved onto this little street.  The neighbors are lovely.  Some are even sublime.  But it's the house that I came to live in.  Feel free to bring a hammer and saw...we're goin' in.