Heather has created the perfect portrait of my children. Last Monday, I learned my oldest and his wildly inaccurate slingshot skills were responsible for the broken glass globe on the lamp post at my step. You will all be relieved to hear murder did not ensue, but financial discipline certainly will.

Also, Julie wrote about attachment, dysfunction and the wide range of ideas that go with those words. She makes a wise and widely-applicable point that it may be better to treat struggling people according to what they need our help with at a given time, rather than according to a category we put them in.

Grace has posted the opening of a new space adventure. I had the privilege of critiquing it at an early stage–was that a year ago?–and I’m looking forward to the final product. Continue reading →

…brings it officially to 1,000 witty retorts. (Oh pooky baby blog! I heart you!) I should give out a prize or something for all the sideways genius that shows up around here, but I have to pay for carpet cleaning.

Today, it seems wise for me to follow Heather’s example, though we had our turkey idol worshipping festivities back in October.

Unusual things to be thankful for:

1. Ownership of a space heater, a shop vacuum, a fan and a large unfinished space right next to our bedroom–where a leaky radiator sabotaged Dave’s attempts to get the home heating system online and did its best to ruin one of the more costly renovations in the house project. We are currently drying out half the floor, with brand-new carpet lifted and underlay removed. Probably worst is the fact that the uneven old-house construction has allowed water underneath the bottom edge of the drywall on two walls, which soaked it up nicely.
2. The fact that neither of us tends to throw things or hit one another when such things happen.
3. Proactive children who are used to being part of the team, including when things go wrong.
4. Coffee and painkillers.
5. It’s NOT Thanksgiving in Canada, and nobody’s coming over today, and I am not scrambling all over to try and deal with all this plus a bunch of other stuff.