UPS

My wife is out of town for eleven days, leaving me the sole parent for five kids. It's a great opportunity for her and our family and I just hope she adjusts well to being in an office rather than across our room in her PJs. The getting ready to leave played in me not updating for the last week. It has been pretty busy around here. Now, back to talking to myself.

I have switched tactics on the sweeping. Just like major life changes, there are various stages when sweeping. First, things go like normal. You enter x amount of contests every day and get excited with the thoughts of what you'll do with the prize. You feel anxiety and excitement. Then, you have your first win. No matter the size of the prize, you feel happy and more excited. Unless you're a very lucky person, the winnings will dry up temporarily and you turn to aggravation and anger at not winning. At that point, you still enter and eventually win again. Sometimes, in the middle of the anger phase, you don't win and the odds are fantastic. 1 in 200 or less. That will spiral you into the "lower your standards so you can win something at least" phase. There, you'll find me except I don't get mad.  irritated sometimes, but still.

The slum standard, as I call it, means you enter more sweeps for things that you wouldn't throw away. Not things you want only, just things that can be given to someone else or you wouldn't toss. For me, this puts me in another place: the surprise win class. These prises are small enough that it doesn't need to be claimed on taxes so they just mail them out. I now know what the dogs feel like when the delivery guys start circling the neighborhood. I guess the only natural solution is to install a peep hole lower on the door and teach the kids how to look for packages for me before Mom gets back. That way it seems more natural and less crazy.