sick day, take two

So today I woke up feeling like death warmed over. It figures, doesn't it?

All day I have been achy, groggy, grumbly and bitchy. In my haze I promised a trip to the park, as soon as I looked outside I realised my folly, buckets of rain and wet snow were falling. We bundled up and went out anyways when I struck it lucky - Sebastian was happy just playing in his muddy sandbox. This was great, I had been anxious about leaving the house (and bathroom) for an extended period.

Once sufficiently frozen we headed back inside for warm milk and so I could start working on lunch. Moments after we got inside Andrew walked through the door, my wet, cold saviour.

He jumped on child care while I did a million things that were not sitting on the couch and collecting my wits. I got some soup defrosting and sat down, only to be bored - so I got us caught up on paperwork (like getting to a pint where we can actually file our 2006 taxes, which meant several calls to government agencies to update our address and ask for information to be mailed out again). It feels good to finally have that taken care of, and it also means that once our taxes are filed we will have paid our outstanding Medical Services Plan balance and will also start getting our monthly Child Tax Benefit cheques again! Tomorrow we send off Rigby's birth registration and get her MSP forms taken care of, adding her to Andrew's insurance at work. I also finally send of my organ donor registration yesterday.

I am not a big Christmas-type, sure I like the holiday, but I also kind-of hate it. New Year's, on the other hand, is one of my favourites. I like the whole concept of starting over from scratch, plus it is the ultimate list-making holiday. And I love making lists. This year I am challenging myself to make a realistic and short list of resolutions. Which means cleaning up all the loose bits of 2007, so they don't get in the way.

As for that other holiday, we are working on ways to make it as low-cost as possible given our current lack of money and distaste for anything we *could* afford. I am finally going through with my no-crap-presents mandate this year. Not one person I know needs more *stuff* in their house, I would love to give them art or an experience (like tickets to the opera) but I can't afford that stuff, so this year I am going to bake. I will have to scour my books for the yummiest and yet least expensive recipes, but I will do it and they will eat it and we'll all be happy. I am also encouraging my friends not to get us any more stuff - but that one is harder to do without sounding a little offensive or, as I often sound to my friends, hippy-dippy. I know the kids will get spoiled, on our list of things to do before the holidays is to do a really thorough and brutal toy cull. Everything decent will go up on craigslist for free and anything that doesn't go will be dropped off with a local charity.