[A note on this post: Do you get Night Sadness? Where it's the evening and you feel like everything is crappy and hopeless for no particular reason? It's kind of like depression except that it's only occasional and it goes away by morning. Anyway, when I wrote this post I had Night Sadness, and when morning came I felt happy about the holidays again---though I do still find I'm connecting each happy thing ("Almost time to put up the lights, yay!") with the corresponding sad thing ("Ug, and then we'll have to take them down, and they always look so tacky and sad as soon as Christmas is over"). And so then I felt a little silly about this post, but I'm on a deadline here so I'm going with what I've got---particularly because I am certain to feel this way again and again before it's January and we can relax and enjoy the inventory clearance sales.]

I’ve been up to my hairline in holiday shopping and I’m sick of it.
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I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s trying to cut back on superfluous spending lately—cramped budgets! Looming holidays! Insane daycare costs! Medical co-payments! Babysitters! Pants for my son who keeps getting taller but not wider so nothing ever fits, ever!—so I thought it would be fun, and possibly even useful, to share a few of the things we’ve bought lately that have been worth every penny and then some. Caveat: these have to be things we’ve bought for ourselves, not for our kids, okay?

I’ll go first:
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Oh, do you have a feverish, bored, restless kid, too?  We should form a club!  Here are some ideas for keeping sick kids occupied, at home or in the hospital:

1.  Knitting spool.  It’s fun when something from my childhood is still around in basically the same incarnation.  This is one of those things that makes a long knit rope, and my mom gave me one when I was a feverish, bored, restless child back about…well, no need to do the math.  I bought William a $3 Boye version at a craft store (I think Walmart has them, too), plus…

2.  Yarn.  I bought a $2.50 skein of Red Heart multicolored yarn, which I found at Walmart.  The multicolored yarn results in a STRIPED rope, which is significantly cooler than the Hippie Natural Unbleached Yarn rope I made as an ill child in the 1970s.  I like #950, which makes a rainbow.  Who’s a hippie NOW?
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I suppose that the one night a year when no one really NEEDS a special holiday treat would be Halloween, since it already features a metric truckload of individually wrapped cavity-bombs, but what are we, GRINCHES? No we are NOT.

Here’s some cooking inspiration for your Halloween evening, if you can put the fun-sized Butterfingers down long enough to spend time with a recipe or two:
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It seems wrong to look forward to Breast Cancer Awareness Month just because of all the pink stuff, but THERE IT IS. Breast Cancer Awareness has done a really good job of getting a ton of fun pink fundraising products on the market. For those of us who would buy pink stuff ANYWAY, it’s awesome pink riches—and a nice way to donate a little money here and there.

I was reading Lora’s post about cervical cancer and how it doesn’t get quite the parade breast cancer does. Uterine and ovarian cancer get left in the shadows, too. I’m guessing it’s because you can check yourself for breast cancer so it’s a good idea to make everyone aware of it. Other kinds, it’s more like Annual GYN Office Visit Awareness.

But it’s also a SHOPPING problem: I looked around and there are sites for the non-breast forms of Girl Cancer awareness, but they don’t SELL STUFF. If I can’t buy a pencil or a t-shirt for it, I’m not as aware, is my feeling about it.

Luckily, places like Etsy and CafePress step in where non-profits forget to tread.
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We’ve done a Halloween costume round-up before (along with, if you’re feeling topical, a list of cool Etsy-made treat bags, some fun craft ideas, and cool Halloweeny stuff in general), but I keep coming across the WEIRDEST kid costumes this year and thought I’d share. Behold, inspiration for your little trick-or-treater:

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We have family in town this week, specifically ONE family member, specifically my mother-in-law. I’ve been trying to think of some fun shopping-type things to post about here, but it feels like I’m attempting to surf the online stores while clinging to a piece of shipwreck: I am a little distracted by the SHARKS nibbling my TOES.

Some of us have lovely, lovely family members who are a joy to be around, but it seems like most of us have at least SOME family members who drive us batcrap crazy. Surely we can combine forces on this—if not to drive all those family members into a barbed-wire enclosure, at least to make their visits more bearable. I will share my tips with you if you will share yours with me.
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The ongoing news with the H1N1 virus has me thinking a lot about vaccinations lately, and I thought it might make a good topic for this blog. Not anything controversial, mind you, just some ideas for making shots hurt less. Most of us know about trying a children’s pain reliever before the injection and rubbing the site afterwards, but here are a few more tips for easing the Woe and Angst:
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Love Etsy. Love fall.  (Don’t despair if the individual item I’ve linked to has sold out:  the sellers often have more of the same item listed in their shops.)

Draft snake in “Lush” by Oh the Cuteness! on Etsy. Draft snakes help keep the chill out, but can we call them something less slithery-sounding?  Swiss cake rolls are long and thin, too.
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Do you tend to carry the same things in your bag, whether you’re heading to the office or to the playground? I know this isn’t really a thrilling topic for a blog post, but I was noticing recently as I shoveled the contents from a milk-stained “casual” purse to my fancier “work” clutch that no matter where I’m going, I drag the same inventory along with me. Here’s my can’t-leave-home-without-it list:
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