( continues...) afternoons are spent with the kids so that I'll get to actually be with them for a few hours each day, and starting all the from-home part of the work only after they were asleep, I didn't even have time to remember that I don't have any time for anything. I've already taken several steps in trying to ensure that next year will be at least a little less crazy. Hopefully, some of them will actually work. I still find that moment of the light-bulb being turned-on on top of a student's head in "Oh, so *that's* what it means!" to be a thing of wonder and joy.

I constantly wish I had more time to catch up here, to really know how you're doing, not just check "Beep Me" and "Press", but the actual daily details of how people are doing (just like, I'm-not-going-to-calculate-how-long-ago-because-I'll-never-believe-the-number-anyway, I was looking for your conversations regarding the BtVS episodes, not just episodes recaps). So many of you are constantly in my thoughts and daily in my prayers. I miss y'all.

[Edit: yeah, I didn't expect I could do it in just the one post, I have to admit. And that's even without getting all gushing and mushy and sappy about the khusband and the Pi and the Pi++. And without me getting to try to unentangle thoughts about how parenting is the most challenging, rewarding, demanding, forcing-you-to-the-become-the-best-possible-version-of-yourself job I could never imagine. Concise, that's not a word I can ever use for anything regarding me.]

Nilly, it is lgood to see you here, and very good that things are going so well for you.

Stephanie, it is good to know you are prospering.

Concise Nilly would be sad making. It is a pure delight to read about your full and happy life and I only wish you had more hours to spend with us to share those daily moments. You are loved and missed.

So let's see....my kids are now 11, 8, and 4.

How many Buffista sprog have been born in the last 15 years or so that we have been here? World Domination is surely ours.

Stephanie, it is wonderful to see your considerable hard work yielding such results. What you do is important and I hope more gratifying than frustrating.

Nilly! So good to see your pixels again.

So is my non-Buffista friend the only one who calls that club "hyster sisters"??

I think I will call it that from now on, since I'm scheduled to join said sisterhood in February. Could've done it earlier, but between the Europe trip last summer, having had the flu this spring, and my NYC trip this summer I'm super-low on both vacation and sick leave, so I wanted to stock up enough to avoid leave without pay. Also, doing it in 2017 gives me time to up my flex med contributions. Not to mention it's given me time to go from, "Wow, surgery=scary! No more uterus=strange," to "So damn sick of this get it out out OUT."

I'm considering having the ablation done because I'm tired of periods. But I don't know that I'm yet mentally ready to really be done having babies though, let's face it, at this point it would take a star in the East and a visit from an angel.

Susan - please yell, "Get out get out GET OUT!" as you get wheeled into surgery.

Susan W., and all, it's been 20 years since I had my hysterectomy, and I still smile every time I walk by the "feminine hygiene" aisle without having to buy anything. Well worth it.

Hi, I'm Bennett. I mostly lurk, posting occasionally in Literary or if cats are mentioned somewhere. I live in Texas, am another librarian, and currently have two cats. Nothing much else interesting, sadly.

Susan - please yell, "Get out get out GET OUT!" as you get wheeled into surgery.

I wouldn't be surprised if my doctor got the reference...

"Hyster sisters" is in fact a website for women about hysterectomies. Lots of useful information, and a big forum. I haven't had a hysterectomy (yet) but I was diagnosed with atypical hyperplasia about a year ago, and that's the recommended treatment. Instead I got an IUD and that seems to have done the trick for a bit.

My ob had an early hyst for the same reason I did, and she was great. One query about my feelings on never having (bio) children, to which I replied with a fervent "I am totally fine with that" and it was scheduled right away.

Bennett, I also sail through feminine hygiene aisles with a happy song in my heart. Which I sing whenever I fold my pretty panties that I can wear without fear every day in a month, and wash my non-bloodstained sheets.