It would be easier to pick a title if I only wrote about one subject.

Good morning! Cedric and Amena are both having a hard time getting going this morning. I didn’t want to get up, either. I didn’t really want to go to bed last night, either, which did not help my not wanting to get up. I suspect that is the problem they are having as well.

Getting ready to put everything in Laura's letterbox.

I had fun cooking yesterday. After I found the brown bread recipe that I used (which is very good, even after spending too much time in the oven), I discovered that there are non-yeast version of brown bread as well. The two that seem to be most prominent are Irish brown bread and Boston brown bread. At least one of them calls for raisins so while I may try whichever one does, I will not be actually adding raisins unless I do to one half for Paul. I might try one of them today. The Boston recipes call for cooking the bread in molds which typically seem to be about 28 ounce to 1 pound cans. One I saw says to bake it, one gets cooked on top of the stove. This would come in handy for people who did not have fireplaces with ovens yet although I’m sure the early settlers did not have one pound coffee cans in which to bake their bread.

Up close of the jack o'lantern. I like the stamp itself more than the image you get after stamping. I'm not sure why but one of these days I might carve another one and replace it.

Yesterday afternoon after Amena got home, we went to pick Cedric up who actually ran more than a mile and was not ready at 3:30 like he thought he would be (so it’s a good thing we didn’t get there any earlier than we did or we’d have been waiting even longer). Once we had him, we went to Joanna and Lincoln’s to meet their new kitten. They aren’t sure if the kitten is a girl or a boy so the kitten doesn’t have a name yet. I looked and, quite frankly, I couldn’t tell. Pretty, though. And spoiled.

Ready to be locked in.

Seth had practice and for practice was a boys against parents game and I was actually mentally prepared for it this time. However, because my boys didn’t want to leave Joanna’s and were being somewhat twerpy, we left late and would have missed most of the game. Not to mention it was also a Meet the Doula night and I really felt like I should go so I would have had to find a ride home for Seth or be really late myself. I ended up being really late, anyway.

Ready to be hid.

The doula program is undergoing major changes. Meredeth stopped working at Heywood Hospital some time ago and she is who got the program going from its inception something like eight or nine years ago and had been working as a doula much longer than that. Now, Karen has resigned her position as the manager of the maternity unit and she was the push for the program from the inside. Not only was she the push, she was the organizer and scheduler and go-to person. Now there is still Paulette. I don’t know what her official title is but she’s like the head honcho over all the nurses. She is a proponent of the doula program as well but acknowledges that she does not know how it was run on a daily basis because Karen did all that. She is still willing to help the program move forward but already had a lot on her plate and with Karen being gone, has even more.

All of the necessary items for Alisha's letterbox. You can see we got new boxes. They are similar, but different. The same size, which I like. The next size bigger would allow for a larger log book but I am of the opinion that really isn't necessary. Maybe someday.

I think the doula program is a valuable asset to the hospital for those women who give birth there. For those of us, like me, who know there is a better way, it still seems overly medicalized. Doulas are great and do provide for laboring and birthing women options that would not likely be available to them, but they are volunteers with no power to do other than what they are specifically allowed to do. I will continue to do my part, and I will be more diligent than I have been for the past few months, but I do not know for how long I will do this. I think there are other options that might be a better fit for me and I think it is time to explore them.

Up close of Numero Uno.

Paul got home safely last night. I’m not sure when but I did notice he was in bed at some point in time. He said that Sunday it was in the high 80s and there were people with parkas on in Arizona. If so, the 51° or so we are expected to get to should feel nice.

Cedric got his report papers yesterday. I can’t really call them cards because they aren’t that any longer. And I shouldn’t say he got all of them because he only got four. I can’t complain about his grades in spite of a C in English. He struggles with that so any sign of improvement is good enough for me. He got Bs in Geography and Science and an A in math. Still to come are Art, Gym, and Spanish. I expect decent grades in each of those.

The moon was even bigger last night. Maybe because it was actually full? It was certainly beautiful, as well.

I won’t comment on Amena’s grades other than to say that procrastination does not pay and her tendency to want everything to be perfect leads to less than perfect grades because too often she turns papers in late.

Now I believe I will be off. It is almost time to watch for the bus and I have many fun things (and many not-so-fun things) to do today. And my Enter key still needs some work. My right pinky is getting tired of having to hit it so many times before it does what it is supposed to.

Have a fantastical day!