Suddenly the night has grown colder

First day back with the kids.  It actually went fairly well.  I'm guessing that's because the day back from a vacation is usually a low-stress day and the students who are usually defiant and balk at doing anything resembling work feel more free.  Or maybe they all matured a lot over the two-week break!  Yes, that's likely.  VP and I joked that it was because the three most defiant kids (JHM, AAA, and FRH) had lost track of their disruption schedule.  "Let's see, was it me who last spent the day screaming?  Was today your day to jump on the tables, or to go limp and be dragged down the hallway on the way to music?  Oh, forget it.  We'll just start again tomorrow."  

It came up that my (nominal) co-teacher Ms. Young hasn't seen Ghostbusters.  She asked me, "Is that the one with Casper?"  Lord, I'm ancient.  I can feel the sawdust in my bones crunching as I shuffle about.

Back at the homestead, LD spent the day making a spreadsheet to try to keep track of our expenditures from last year.  It's appalling.  We spent way more than we thought on things like eating out and other fripperies.  And man, kids' sports are enormously expensive, especially when you take into account the plane tickets required to go to away games and tournaments.  I think travel shouldn't be required for kids' activities until they're in high school, but apparently I'm in the minority.

We're not currently hurting for money, but her lucrative job ends in ten days (the company got bought a while back, and closing time has arrived) and there's a general feeling of uncertainty.  It was a really great job with a CEO who was one of the good ones; it's always gloomy when things change, more so when the situation is a comfortable one and the status quo seems just fine.