I sometimes irritate even myself with my tendency toward negativity, and I know that I spend far too much time venting the bad/sad/mad stuff online... so I thought I'd take a minute to remind myself that my life really is pretty neat.

My 13-year-old sister has been here for a week. She has muscular dystrophy, so she's about average height for her age (5'2" or so) but weighs about 60 pounds. She can't jump, she can't step up a curb by herself, and she can't smile. But she has the most beautiful, upbeat attitude about life, and she is so, so good with my kids. She has spent hours playing trains with Emily in the past week, and trust me, if you knew just how bossy my 4-year-old can get you'd know that this is no small feat. She can't carry Jacob around, but she has developed a real knack for feeding him cereal - so even though we had just been giving him about a teaspoon a night for practice, we've been letting her feed him because she loves it, and he's been gnawing through 2-3 tbsp a night. And would probably eat more if we prepared more. So, that has been wonderful.

As obnoxious as my husband can be at moments, it's only annoying because I have a non-annoying baseline to compare him to. He is thoughtful and careful and obviously just loves his kids to pieces. And he has only whined a few times about not being able to get the new "Half Life" game (not because we can't afford the money, but because he would want to disappear into the game for a week straight and knows he can't), such maturity.

I pulled off a vastly successful Christmas, with nice gifts and a good spread of food, despite the snottiness of my mother-in-law.

My children are beautiful and smart and healthy and kissable. And they were both intelligent enough to take the very best of my husband and myself, when selecting out their DNA strands.

And I'm facing a new year with some huge, but positive, changes in store. I will finish my coursework - all that will be between me and my doctorate is my dissertation (I just, literally seconds ago, turned in my draft proposal, so it's moving along!) and a year at internship. We'll be moving across the state (60 whole miles, woo-hoo!) to a new house, so that my husband can go back to school for his doctorate. I'll be working full-time for the first time since 2000.

So, while I won't for a second promise to whine less in the New Year, I did want to take a minute at the end of this one to point out the positives.