Is He? Or Isn't He? Yes? No? I Think, No... Oh, I Don't Know!

Kind of a stressful morning with Monk as he complained about an upset stomach and a sore throat. He actually woke up at 2:30 last night and called me in because he was afraid he was about to throw up. I've learned to get the bucket first and ask diagnostic questions later! But he didn't get sick last night and fell asleep again with the bucket on a chair beside his bed.

This morning it was more of the same, but my gut instinct kept telling me he wasn't really sick. (Even so, my gut has told me that before and the consequences have been dire!)

I've been kicking myself ever since our conference with his teacher on Tuesday afternoon. I told his teacher (in front of Monk) that this is the first year that Monk hasn't had any absences yet and hasn't fussed at going to school in the morning. It was as if I planted a seed that was bursting to sprout.

The past two mornings have brought back the old struggles in full force.

We ended up sending him to school today. The thing is, he has tomorrow and Monday off. And then he heads off for his first-ever overnight field trip on Tuesday morning! So today felt like a really important day for him to go in and get any of the last minute instructions that he'll need--and so that we'll feel like we know what's going on when we drop him off Tuesday morning. (For some reason his teacher embedded the permission slip for this trip deep in the packet of information about it. When we turned it in, we neglected to pull it out of the packet. So now all we know about the trip is what we feel like we might, kinda, sorta remember from going through the packet once. Not enough, in other words.)

I think we made the right decision. We heard him singing in the shower for heaven's sake. You don't sing in the shower when you feel like you might hurl, do you?

But I hate this feeling of not being sure. I wish there were some sensor on my kid where we could touch it and feel and know exactly what he's feeling--rather than having to sift through a bunch statements that always seem either just vague enough or just dramatic enough that I have no idea what's really going on.

Another Step in the Right Direction

So here's something I am very excited about lately. At the end of last week, we had a huge, green bin delivered to our apartment building. It resides out back, next to the dumpster. But it doesn't collect trash--it collects food scraps! And paper towels, paper plates, paper take-out containers, pizza boxes, ice cream containers, napkins! And the food scraps don't have to be only vegetables, but can include meat, cheese, and other food things that can't normally be composted. I . AM . SO. HAPPY !

In the week that we've had this new bin, we have yet to fill the trash can under our sink. I think it is going to make a HUGE difference in the amount of trash we contribute to landfills.

Plus, the ability to recycle to this extent makes the now few things we can't recycle really stand out like a sore thumb! Extra packaging seems more obscene than ever in comparison.

What makes me not excited? The yahoos in our apartment complex who have already put plastic bags in the green bin (which D, bless his heart, fished out). Unbelievable.

In other news, I haven't talked about it since I started, but the vegetarian life is greatly agreeing with me.

Small steps that my family and I are able to take to live more gently on this planet.


PS I've already pointed out to D that this means we absolutely must eat more ice cream--so we have an easy way to collect the food scraps. Don't you agree? :)