November 2023
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November 15
Christina and I get 45 minutes between her dance classes to eat dinner together. It’s nice to have this alone time with her, even if we do end up spending some of it glued to our screens.
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November 14
As it turns out, communication skills learned in therapy in other contexts do not work on teenagers. In case you were wondering.
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November 13
What a long day. It required an orchestra of effort from several people, but somehow everyone got to everywhere and all the pieces of everything needed were purchased or reserved. I think. I even got Christina to practice some math before her unit test tomorrow. Don’t know if she did it right because I couldn’t…
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November 12
Today was Robin’s first cheer performance with her new team. The routine wasn’t totally ready, so there was a little bit of awkward while they just stood there, but what we saw looked good! I’m so excited to see Robin cheer on a team where she’s challenged and gets to be competitive. She seemed really…
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November 11
There was some kind of soccer tournament going on near the hotel. There were at least 75 kids running around the lobby and the pool after dinner while their 125 parents drank beer and wine and largely ignored them. The noise! The chaos! It wasn’t the peaceful escape I imagined, but we did get this…
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November 10
Against my better judgment, I solved a longstanding problem at work today. It was so simple and so drastic an improvement, it’s ridiculous that no one had ever thought of it before. Problem solved, I guess.
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November 9
I went outside to check on Pinot in the backyard, because he likes to dig under the fence and disappear. He was sniffing around on the grass, so I lay down and looked at the sky a while. It was a really nice day, warm but not hot, sunny with a few clouds, not humid.…
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November 8
I hate this photo. I don’t even want to post it. But this is what I got. I am definitely in a mindset of, screw it, I don’t care. I just want to sleep.
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November 7
Had a tough day. Have not been feeling my best to begin with, but I had a lousy meeting that put me over the edge. Like, way over. To feel better, I decided to have some plantain chips that Billy bought for me, but he took them with him to his wrestling practice. So then…
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November 6
I rediscovered an old playlist – songs that defined my life, every one with a story. Someday I want to write a book holding all of those stories. As I was listening to it after the kids went to bed, I thought about the sermon I wrote for church that was so well received and…
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November 5
Today was Daylight Savings, church and the silent auction, lunch at the Loop with the girls, Lowe’s and Michaels with Billy and Christina, working on the advent calendar (it’s coming along), pork loin and homemade applesauce, driving home from cheer, and trying to stay awake until a respectable hour. I’m almost there.
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November 4
We went to the mall… paradise for the kids, meh for me. They got some cute stuff with their allowance and birthday money, which is now suitably depleted. Robin got these cute earrings. Even I got a couple things. It appears spending money is just irresistible.
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November 3
Today was moody teenager day. Want to go out for ice cream, don’t want to go out for ice cream, go out for ice cream, want to play games, play games, don’t want to play games, life is miserable, can we just go home. Life is exhausting.
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November 2
It was really just another day. I got some very nice compliments about the service I put together last Sunday and that felt good. It felt almost as good as doing the service in the first place. I’m very glad it was meaningful to other people too.
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November 1
It wasn’t a great day. I ruined four other people’s days and man, that’s one more than a trifecta.
Year in Photos 