good bad ugly

Good.

• M (mostly) swapping almonds for lollies. He started on the lollies at work because he quit smoking, and he need to do SOMETHING, especially with night shifts. His lolly intake is waaaaaaaaaaay down. So proud.
• lovingearth Luvju maqui raw organic chocolate. Um yum. It's true what they say- with a good quality dark chocolate, a little goes a loooong way. I've had this 120g bar that I've been nibbling on in the fridge since I returned to little town.
• Questioning what is in my/ our food. I downloaded the chemical maze app- it's the only app I've ever paid for, and it's... a real eye opener. This year I've been trying to cut down on numbers (and meat) (and processing/ chemicals, basically) in our diet, and to read ingredients more. You know those mysterious numbers in ingredients list? I type them into the app, and it tells me what it is, and ranks it- totally safe, only in moderation, avoid, SERIOUSLY AVOID THIS. For example, one of the preservatives in our frozen pizza dough is banned in infant food because it's really not that great for you.
• Willow's gained a bit of weight. She's always been really skinny and scrawny looking, but recently, she's really filled out.
• Our pantry is being slowly emptied of prepacked food. Winning.
• Started reading Death By Rubber Ducky. Another eye opener. One that raises more questions than it answers, especially about Willow. ie, she was diagnosed with gynaecomastia (breasts when you shouldn't have breasts) as a baby. (It's since gone away, but was noticeable when she was several months old, so it wasn't a newborn thing.) I asked the nurse why, and she suggested it could be a chemical in food, or hormones in my breast milk. I've always wondered, which one? I know it's fairly minor- Willow is a girl, after all- but what chemical is making my baby daughter produce breasts? What else is happening to her that I can't see? What is happening in my body that I'm producing too much of oestrogen? Or is it all a random thing?
• Willow's potty training is going really, really well.

Bad:

• ... I like Willow peeing in her nappies when we're out in public. I hate public restrooms. Am I a bad mother?
• Neighborhood disputes. Urgh. Don't drag me in, but I can't help but get dragged in when you're causing trouble for no good reason.
• Psyching myself up for a purge. We don't keep much junk around the house since there is no room, but there's stuff we ought to get rid of, but can't.... *sigh* The lack of cupboards or drawers in this house are really, really hard. Example: We're storing bathroom stuff- like towels, and cleaning products, and medicine- all in our bedroom. What the hell. We've moved the big shelving that we had in the bathroom into our bedroom, and moved Willow's wardrobe into the bathroom, and put the shelves back up, so it's a bookcase again. A bookcase without books. It just holds bathroom stuff we use all the time, like make up and Willow's bathtoys.
• Willow's a bit freaked out. The wardrobe is used to hold her dresses, except now she doesn't understand why her beloved wardrobe is in the bathroom. She assumes her dresses are now gone.
• I had a really, really bad dream that involved Willow drinking toilet cleaner. I was so panicked that when I managed to haul myself out of the dream, I was thrashing around so much (I was panicking) that I kicked M in his boy bits.
• Neighbour 3 moved away. ;_;
• Neighbour 6 is moving away, along with their two year old daughter whom Willow plays with. Willow is a bit sad to loose her most reliable friend.

Ugly:

• The train wreck that are the Mr & Mrs at Number 6. When Willow heard them fighting, she pulled our sliding door shut to try and block out the noise. Couples disagree, that's normal. We all live close together, so we generally pretend we don't hear that stuff. But... their arguing is ugly. Lots of swearing and spite. And they yell really, really loud.
• There are a few issues with Number 6. I've written about them on facebook, so I won't write it about it again... But.... while Willow might loose a friend, I'm kinda glad they're gone, in a way. It means I don't have them in front of me constantly, and me wringing my hands constantly, wondering if I should call DoCs. But... since they've been evicted, they're going back to her mother's house. And... I think that might be good thing. She mentioned that her dad "had a go" at her for living in filth, and various family member's aren't happy about the state of her house. And, ok, so they'll be blacklisted for 5 years, but maybe in that time they'll learn the basics of financial planning?
• I helped to clean her house. My skin is still crawling at the memory of mould and cockroaches. The worst part was that Mrs 6 was aware and disgusted about the state of the house (she was cleaning by using tongs because she was too grossed out to touch stuff) and yet it was like, dude, you've chosen to live like this for several months.
• Willow's poop cake. This was a while ago, but M and I are still traumatised. We can't bear to leave her alone in her room for long periods of time anymore.