What a relief/accomplishment/triumph msbelle!!! Congratulations and I hope you are resting well.

It's been fun just cracking open the world of possibility for Matilda. To get her to think on a bigger scale.

I was thinking this very thing as I worked today. The world that you have opened up for these girls.

When I interned for my counseling degree at the inner-city middle school (which has thankfully been torn down), it just made me so sad that most of those kids would never get the sense that more was available to them. Literally everyone had let them down. They thought that bathroom stalls 'locked' with rusty hangers was normal.

Quite apart from the luxury and privilege, Matilda has a sense of what is beyond her next step and that is a true gift.

Thanks all.

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Back to work alas and the test does not seem to be the source of my anxiety. Or if it was, the anxiety has not left my body yet. Weird dreams continue and jittery innards. I have therapy tomorrow so will discuss.

Bummer msbelle. I hope it was the cause and your body just needs another day to catch up or something. I had weird stress dreams last night including one where I had taken a job at a new company where I had to go in to the office but somehow I hadn’t quit my current iob? And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep the new one but I could t figure out how I was going to juggle this and it was very stressful.

Whoops, the body shop found more damage to my car and now the insurance company is totaling it rather than repairing it.

It's not a super-big deal, because we've been talking about getting by with only one car, but now I have to decide how I feel about it.

Dana, that still sucks, because it's one more thing to deal with.

My Monday-morning tapioca brain has extended into the afternoon, which is unfortunate, because I have shit to get done no matter what state my brain is in.

Sometimes I think it's summer that does that, Tep, but I'll hope for you that it's Monday because that's shorter. Hec, insent. I found a thread of me and Jacqueline in e-mail and I thought you might want to haz.(It's just about writing and stuff, not, like, girl talk or anything. Not that for-real girl talk ever got me anything but permanent Vandella status anyway, but you know what I mean.)

I’m feeling like such a bad mom right now because I’m missing the last softball game of ltc’s season. ltc is being surprisingly understanding about it. I’m having the worst anxiety right now ( I have no idea why) and I just can’t.

I'm sorry, sj. That's right, you can't right now. And ltc will understand. Be gentle with yourself. Hugs.

She’s been wonderful about it. She has anxiety too. So, she gets it. She’s grown so much.

You've raised a compassionate child. I'm glad you are there for each other.