Time change reminder and a little chatter tossed in

[dreamer]

UG, I think we change clocks this weekend. I really dislike time change but I am grateful it is now AFTER Halloween. BUT it sure seems like a busy few days with Halloween, time change and election all so close together. And.it is my difficult children 20th birthday- and she is VERY into her birthday.
I have t comment on this weather, it is insanely wonderful, maybe the weatherman said it was the warmest Halloween we ever had? and i did not rain.
At the moment I feel very blessed becuz we had NO meltdowns for a change. (altho maybe they will come with the birthday or time change?)
And our teeny tiny quiet little house with my normally so lonesome little family had something unbeleiveable happen last nite.
Somehow WE wound up as The Gathering Place. NOne of it was planned but....we wound up with my son haveing his friend and his friends little brother sleep over which THAT part is common....and they are good boys. The enjoy visiting with all of us here...they like to help me cook and bake, (their dad cooks at their house) and they like to play videogames with difficult child and hey like to look at new baby things with easy child and they are in awe of PCs boyfriend. And they spend a lot of time challengeing my husband to videogames. THen C AND HER boyfriend were here, very normal- and thy passed out cand to te trick ortreaters- and he invited their friendss to bring their new baby over.and that little new family decided to stay and "hang out" with us....so the boys had a blast playing with the baby, and then difficult child wound up somehow at our neighbors. We have been neighbors a full 20 years in our houses on top of eachother neighborhood, but......we havenever gotten together, even tho my 2 girls and their daughter are same age. we never fought, we just never hung out, either.....and somehow difficult child wound up getting the neighbor daughter to come over here, in the midst of all our company and -----deep treat difficult children overprocessed hair and return it to her more natural state-------and neighbors boyfriend also came over. Mind you my house is less than 1,000 sq feet. No dining room, no family room, no den. Mind you I di NO housework for over 10 years and neither did anyone else here. and PCs friend has already sent over EVERYTHING needed for a new baby. People were sitting on eachothers laps-------we had a board game going in kitchen where we have a restaurant booth for a table- and the youngest boy and some of the teens played monopoly. we had my husband and one teen an PCs friend engaged in some videogame -I have never played videogames and do not watche games so do not know what the played.....another of the younger boys "helped" neighbor girl who is now in cosmetology school do difficult children hair.....
It was amazing, it was fun, it was so different from anything that ever happened here before. I ordered in a BUNCH of pizzas.they were gone in a flash......altho I did manage to grab a couple peices and took them next door to neighbor girls mom.....and wound up chattering with HER for quite awhile.......
They began migrateing to my house about 6 and well, some slept over, but some did not leave until 3 am. AT first husband had difficulty haveing anyone here at all, but as he continued to immerse himself in the videogames, the kids wandered to visit with hiim, and in the end, even grumpy husband had a good time.
difficult children hair looks better than it has for at least the las 5 years........
and neighbors girl found out we are going the Marine Corps Birthday Ball as a whole family next weekend and has requested helping get us girls all prettied up.

I donot know what happened last nite, but.it sure was kinda like bewitching......in a very very good way. VERY unusual.
Well, I better get off my web tv and go get busy for difficult children birthday......cake to make, gifts to wrap...dinner to plan........

and todays weather again is just smply AMAZING so far.
OH, and LOL, my silly doggie- he wore his lil costume (Moose) SO proudly.....I was surprised how many people brought their costumed doggies trick or treating, and my doggie begged to go- so we took HIM out for a bit, too......and we took him for 2 deliveries to our food pantry to drop off food.
Altho our kitties were not quite as happy to be costumed......so we let them off the hook and ook theirs off and they sat in our living room window watching all the kids outside come to our door. 2 of our kitties are jet black.and some of the little kids squealed in lite to see te 2 black kittis onein each living room windw.

this was NOT at all like any other holiday my family has ever had. It sure was fun!!!!!

BUt, ug, I do not want to change the clocks.

 

[Andy]

I do think I will have a hard time remembering to put the clocks back even though I am looking forward to the extra hour of free sleep. Do any of you ever have an issue of you putting the clocks back and then husband or wife decides to also put the clocks back? We really work on our communication skills during clock changing time. Have had some close calls!

Dreamer, you really did have a great evening last night. I hope it turns into an annual tradition for you all.

We have also had perfect weather this weekend. Though it started to get chilly about 9:30 last night. The little girl I was with wasn't wearing socks for our door to door in her neighborhood. As we walked down one street, she said, "I hope someone gives out socks." That really would be a new one!

difficult child cleaned an area in the garage for the van this afternoon and is now working on raking leaves. He asked if he could make his dad pay him for the raking. He worked so hard today and really did an awesome job with the garage that I think I will let him get a Lego set when we go to Walmart.

I am going to take the kids to eat an early dinner tonight. easy child needs something to take to a Halloween party tonight so will go get something at that time.

easy child said she is going with a friend on Thursday to check out a college. She is back into a "what will I do?" mode in regards to a place to live. She and this friend have been looking at apartments. Then her friend K in another state has decided that easy child should move there this Summer. After K is done with cosmotology school, the two girls want to move somewhere to get away from the towns they are living in. Too many options out there. I would hope easy child goes with the first friend to college.

 

[KTMom91]

It sounds like you had a wonderful time! Wish I lived closer...those are the kinds of gatherings I love.

 

[dreamer]

we have had in the past issues with more than one of us changeing the clock- or noone changeing it at all, and walking around for a week or a month on the wrong time, LOL.....it is less of a problem now cuz we have an atomic clock in kitchen, and liv room has a clock guided and set by our cable company, and our cell phones clocks get set by our cell company.....LOL. AND it is less an issue now than it used to be since me and husband do not work, and 2 of our kids homeschool and we are not rigid about the hours they keep- and we do some homeschooling sometimes in middle of nite, even (I think technically we do more "unschool" than "homeschool"?) and the only one on medications these days is me.....so- "time" is not always very relevant for us, anymore, and we are a 24 hour household. BUT I do still hate the disruption of any time change, spring or fall. and I hate the mechanics of haveing to mess with ANY clock or watch or whatever. LOL.

I went to cosmetology school way back in 1975, LOL---my high school offered it as part of HS curriculum, and my HS paid for it back then (our HS here, now offers certified nurse assistant training and also builds homes.....)
I thought easy child was in a hurry to leave home, leave the GFGness, leave the dad so ill thing....and leave our little town that we find especially cold.....(altho I am too unmotivated to move) BUT now here she is, home.LOL-----and she seems to- with her new preg- to be finding a new love and appreciation of home, family, and hometown?
What is so weird is our house never was one for mass gatherings, altho we have over the years always had stray kids who seem to love our home, love being part of "our family" Kids who befriend all the members of our family, no matter which family member originally brought them into our home at first..but....husband family is all deceased and has been for many many years.and my family is estranged and always has been.....and due to my working SO many hours before and husband illness and then my illness, and difficult child.....we never really had ANY social anything.....I was FAR FAR too busy.and husband was too intolerant, and our house is simply far far too tiny. Heck WE ourself do not all fit at our kitchen table for a sit down meal together. ANd it was ...weird..our neighbors have been our neighbors for 20 years, they were here when we moved in 20 years ago.....but.while we never had any problems, we also never spoke, not even when they were out in yard and so was I. Even tho our daughters are all same age.....and just do not know WHY. I was the primary care provider for neighbor ladys father.and I adored him.LOL.....I just do not even have a clue WHY we never got close AT ALL, not close enough to even say hi when we are 10 ft away cutting grass.....

The whole thing was pure chaos......but..me being the hypomanic being that I am.I loved it! LOL. And while I might sound nonsocial, I really am social.....
I think all these years I felt inferioir to neighbor lady, her yard is always SO clean.she stayed home doing in home day care....her yard was always so clean, and she always had all the home service people tending to her house things on the regular basis recommended? LIke um....furnace man came yearly to check her furnace, lawn co came each spring....things like that- which I never managed to stay on top of so well. ANd she has her little day care kids outside, her main door and play area and driveway are right under my bedroom window-----and in all these years I never ever once heard her raise her voice, yell, be angry or sad etc.......no matter what.....so- I think I was jealous? and envious?
And while I go outside in my nitey, and in ridiculous clothes and work in my garden, without any tools, just whatever is at hand.....and sit on my hein the dirt to play in my gardens? She always looks pulled together.
Well....turns out....according to the dtr and the mom? they always envied ME.....LOL- my spontaneity, my energy.....and even my less than pretty gardens etc....The dtr said they knew of our various struggles over the years, but it made them overwhelmed with sadness for us.and made them admire ME for me seeming to always handle things, even alone and even with no money...so they said they felt inferior to ME!
OMG! SO- for this long 20 years were we all just tucked inside our little houses in awe of each other and feeling inferior to each other and being all alone? How silly!

LOL< I still have my sons 2 friends here....they are haveing a good time. LOL----and to my delite and surprise, easy child and difficult child just left to have lunch together! It is so nice to see them strengthening their sister bond. They are by nature very different from each other....but.....
Before they left each of my daughters spent some time with son and one of the 2 visiting brothers here visiting......LOL the little boy and easy child decided to look up recipes for dinner....the older brother and difficult child decided to do something with the boys hair.
Admittedly we are all sleepy today.and unmotivated to pull together to accomplish any chores...LOL. BUT.I am in 7th heaven watching all these kids, all these ages......interact. It feels like such a blessing and a gift.

I think I came here to share it with everyone------becuz....I am hopeing it shows there IS Hope? My difficult child can be pretty difficult, inflexible.....my easy child can be pretty bossy and too controlling and too take charge. M son can be far too laid back....my husband often is simply too psychotic, not in this world, and usually cannot tolerate even us here around him at all..needs to know we are in the house but needs us to be in another room.
BUT every once in awhile---- things pull together and ..(this sounds corny) the love shows thru?

I KNOW this is not always how things go......goodness, I am oldest of 5 kids.my mom was 15 when I was born..married 3 times, I was sent on my own at age 12..my youngest bro is 28 yrs my junoir.....the middle kids 15 yrs my junoir.....and ur relationships are extremely volatile etc.
BUT we had this one day and nite here......and it was just SO nice. It really warmed my heart SO much.

Something else also occured yesterday, I did not share earlier.....
My siblings and I have been estranged for YEARS...much to my extreme sadness. They usually are VERY unresponsive to my reaching out.
Yesterday in early morning, my youngest brother DID reply to a Halloween card I mailed him (I still always honor all my siblings and their children even tho they are nonresponsive, becuz I always hold on to hope)
and later in the day, maybe 5 PM? My only sister sent me a cell text.......saying simply......she was missing our mom.......(becuz our mom LOVED all holidays and did them up BIG) I sent her a simple reply that maybe she could hold the warm feeling and turn it into a happy memory..and I sent her a billion hugs....and seh REPLIED!

Ah.such a good day and nite...of COURSE it makes me nervous some "bad" thing will not come to take away the sweetness......
BUT......I am TRYING to hold onto the thought..we DID have this one absolutely amazing and wonderful day. I treasure the gift of this day. ANd I am sending hopes for all of you that you can soon have a day like it, too- one day.that feels good. Cuz, see, while I have not read many posts here this week, I saw subject lines and was sad, cuz I know it can be SO hard. SO I want to bottle our day and share it- send it to all of you so you can have a wonderful day, too.

YUK.nope, I do not like time change ..yukky yukky. it sends us off kilter.

 

[susiestar]

Sounds ike a great get-together. sometimes teh unplanned ones are so much fun! I hope you and the neighbor can develop a friendship, that would be cool.

Thanks for the time change reminder. I always forget. (Though this is behind part of hte planning for taking Jess out of school. Her bus comes at 7 am, which was already full dark. To have it come an hour earlier would just be SO dangerous, I can't imagine! I am much relieved she doesn't have to do that.)