Yuletide rec

This fic explains Malificent's motivations in the 1959 *Sleeping Beauty*. It is funny, clever and so well written.

toast and tea, sunshine and shadow by ephemeralblossom for Untherius

Most disgusting post ever

I need to record this so I can identify future bouts of gluten-related illness. But don't read it unless you are very interested in the movements of my daughter's bowels.

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Ruby will not say how she is feeling or whether she is in pain. Like many children with chronic health conditions, she minimises because she does not want to go to hospital again (heartbreaking). However, she does look much better today so maybe a mouthful of gluten only means three weeks of pain?

Must say that I am sick of cleaning up filth, no matter how much it is not her fault she produces it.

Also, note to self, next year NO food to be eaten out at Christmas.

Hobbit Movie

So, I saw the Hobbit movie. And I liked it despite the fact that it has no plot.

So, spoilers, though not really since the book came out in the 1930s...

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Year in Review 2014

1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before?
Stencilling? And a lot of fanfic writing, much more than before.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I can't recall what they were. Whoops, used to measure progress regularly.

I can't make them for next year, because what happens depends on how Ruby adapts to kindy. If it does not exhaust her, I can have every second Thursday morning to myself and can do exercise and creative things. If it does, I will have to reshuffle my work to fit her kindy schedule and will have even less time to myself.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, and I feel so fortunate about this.

5. What countries did you visit?
No holidays, as always.

6. What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014?
Energy, time, money.

7. What dates from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Lots of sweet moments with the kids being kind and cute. Pearl learning to read, the clever possum.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
This was the first year in which no one has been really sick (or needing diagnosis) so we had much more time. The girls did gym and Pearl had swimming lessons and I did a lot more art.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Being impatient with the girls. Failure to discipline them, so they run amok.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, that was the great thing about this year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Had to spend vast sums on a hot water system I did not want to get and which does not work very well - this is the opposite of the best thing.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The girls, who learned to play together nicely at least a third of the time.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The Federal Government who seem to be actually seeking out people to boot in the face.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Mortgage, bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
*Sleepy Hollow*, stencilling.

16. What song will always remind you of 2014?
Let it Go. All year.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter
iii. richer or poorer? Still poor.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Seeing friends, exercising.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being depressed.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my folks and the kids. I like having a small family over Christmas, it makes it much more manageable.

21. What LJ users did you meet for the first time?
None but I continue to post.

22. Did you fall in love in 2014?
Yes, with my girls.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Sleepy Hollow.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Only Tony Abbott.

26. What was the best book you read?
Not very good but unintentionally funny - the Elsie Dinsmore books.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I like Bruce Springsteen unplugged? I guess everyone else discovered this in the 1980s.

28. What did you want and get?
The children being healthy.

29. What did you want and not get?
Better mental health. More energy. I feel beaten down.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I like Frozen. Saw Zarina the Pirate Fairy in the cinema and also the Hobbit movie.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 43 and I had lunch with some friends. It was one of the five times in 2014 I was not in the company of my children (excluding being at work and including having a pap smear).

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I had this terrible realisation that my kids are very naughty and undisciplined. I have spent all my energy on trying to make them not-sick and little on discipline. I just run out of energy for that. I had this terrible realisation that I am a bad mother.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2014?
I continue to wear the same clothes because - money.

34. What kept you sane?
Reading, art, fanfic, tv, going to parks and letting my children run free range while I read. I used to judge women who do this, now I see that it is literally the only time you can be alone.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
??

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Pretty much every single thing the current government does.

37. Who did you miss?
My sister in England.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Some nice women at the kindy play group. Of course, the ones I like best have children whose ages don't quite synch with mine so the kids will be in different years. Boo!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014?
You need time to recuperate from a long period of anxiety (ie. 2008 to 2013, the period in which I knew there was something wrong with the health of my kids and pursued answers).

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Let it Go.