Make the most of it!

There is another less-famous quote from Patrick Henry, the founding father who made the renowned "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech. After his dramatic conclusion, there was a cry of "Treason!" from one or more dissenting listeners, and he responded with "If this be treason, make the most of it!"

Patrick Henry was awesome.

That quote has been on my mind a lot lately because of this repulsive and destructive administration, but really it applies to many life situations. The past few months I've been trying very hard to make the most of everything. My new job is going wonderfully, I no longer miss my old boss in spite of myself, I tried dating someone and came to the conclusion that I'm much better off single and shouldn't mess with a good thing, and my parents expanded our apartment a bit so that we can actually have a family life now. Things are really going very well, comparatively. Financially, I have just had to accept that I will struggle for quite a few years still. Everything else is much better, so I'll take what I can get and make the most of it!

The kids' dad was moved to a closer location in January, so we can make the trip in a day now, which is very helpful. There are attractions along the way where we have free entry through our NARM membership, and I also learned of a local organization that provides low-cost entry for families on assistance to various attractions in our area. I'm thrilled! The Princess is 5 years old now, old enough to manage a good bit of walking, and now we have all these possibilities of places to go, plus I got a "new" car last month that is much more reliable. It's also a stick shift, and I love it. Yes, it has its drawbacks, since we have a lot of traffic around here. My ankle hurts from pressing the clutch so frequently. But it's a huge improvement over the old car, which wasn't going to pass inspection this month anyway. This one actually has room for my growing boys and their suddenly long legs, hehe. And I like the sound of it. I think my earliest memories of a car must have been my dad's old stick-shift Datsun, and I find the hum and shifting of the manual transmission to be relaxing. It sounds like I've always expected a car to sound.

I hope all the people I met here years ago are doing well. I miss you guys, but I expect we're all busy with better lives and brighter futures, so here's to making the most of it!