Do you ever have that wonderful, thrilling realization that you are the one who makes the rules?

So this is the truest truth about me; I have a lovely, huge sweet tooth that I would never ever deny. I love to have dessert. I have not tried to shield my children from their own sweet teeth too much, knowing they would inevitably be there, and instead have rationalized that if every week or two we make a batch of something tasty, at least I know what form of sugar they're eating.

But this afternoon we ate the last cookie. After bedtime, I wondered what I would do: no sweets. There was some vanilla ice cream, but no hot fudge. Then I remembered: The halloween candy! I had bought two bags of Reeses peanut butter cups to donate to the library for our community trick-or-treating up at the town center.

This was where I got this thrill: It's my house! I can do whatever I want with that candy, including eating it. So I took out the ice cream, softened a nice bowl of it, and mashed up two peanut butter cups. It is so delicious I can hardly even describe it.

And can you imagine what I would have said if my son had proposed the same idea? I would have laughed him down, Oh, honey, those peanut butter cups are for HALLOWEEN, we couldn't possibly eat them beforehand! Besides, that would be WAY too much sugar.

But fortunately for me, I make the rules, and I have in my house a fabulous double-standard that says that after my children are tucked into their beds I get to eat whatever lovely sweets I want to.

Yum.