One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

That seems to be the theme of our lives recently, at least in some areas. Not that it's bad, just slow. For instance, I finally bit the bullet and put Matthew in regular underpants rather than the diapers he prefers. Frankly it's past time for him to be trained and to be honest, he knows what to do but is stubborn. So he's in undies now, which is one step forward. But he's still having accidents and is changing clothes at least once a day, which is is frustrating. And he actually pooped in the local pool a couple weeks ago. Two steps back.

Last Friday we went to the Museum Center for Free Friday (one Friday a month during the summer Union Terminal opens up its museums for 4 hours to everyone for free). The kids love it there and were having a terrific time. One step forward. But David slipped off a low carpet bench and knocked his face into a nearby concrete wall. The result? Scrapes all over his nose, blood all over his face and 2 front teeth missing, plus a nice lisp. Two steps back. Poor guy.

At the beginning of June, I went downtown to apply for food stamps and medicaid in preparation for the upcoming job loss. A very nice case worker told me we would qualify but she couldn't complete our application yet because we still had income. She put us in the system though and said this would save us time later. I was told to come back towards the end fo the month. One step forward. . . Last Friday I went down to finish up the application and was told that I couldn't do anything then since we still had income. Not only that but I was also told that because we would be receiving unemployment we wouldn't actually qualify for food stamps. Now does that make any sense at all? Definitely two steps back. I'll head back downtown later this week or next and try again.