Alcohol

I've gone through phases in my life where I've liked alcohol.  Sometimes I think I might have liked alcohol a little too much.  On two separate occasions I decided to stop drinking alcohol for an entire year.  Then there were the pregnancies, in which drinking alcohol is not a good thing, so there were those years as well.

But all in all, intentional as well as situational alcohol abstinence, there are still many years and periods in which I drank some or a lot.  There were the college years when I first was old enough to buy my own alcohol.  College is all about excess in so many ways.

Then there was corporate drinking.  No, no, not at work, but the social aspect of going to get drinks after work or parties on the weekend with your friends from the office.  There was the locational drinks, such as the beach for daiquiris or margaritas and the cookout where beer was king.

As I got older I noticed that the more alcohol I consumed, the tighter my clothes seemed to fit.  It turns out there are lots of calories in alcohol--something I didn't have to worry about when I was younger.

I find myself again at one of those points in my life where I'm considering stopping drinking for a period of time.  Why?  Because anyone who consumes an addictive substance should be able to stop, completely, without issue, at any time.  If you can't, you have a problem.

Do I think I have a problem?  No, I don't.  I don't drink that much.  But when I find myself thinking, "boy, a beer sure would be good about now" I always question my motives.   Addiction can be about anything.  I stopped eating candy for an entire month once.  I didn't realize how much I ate and how much I craved sugar until I stopped completely.  But, by the end of the month, I didn't even care about candy any more.

The same is true for alcohol.  Stop now and a few months from now you'll notice you don't even think about it.

The Big Boy Update:  Hungry and combative.  When he is hungry and sleepy he is a terror sometimes.  He has a hard time calming down to eat.  It's getting worse as he doesn't understand what's happening to him at this age.  I feel like I'm a mean parent, telling him he MUST eat something before he goes to sleep and then forcing him to stay at the table because later, this problem will only be compounded.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Curling hair.  Her hair has been mostly straight.  But, as it's grown out some it's starting to get curls.  It's taking a long time to get long, but I would like to see her cute little blonde hair longer now, while she's a cute little tiny girl.

Someone Once Said:  One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.