life resumes

Since I last posted, we've been having a great time: a brand-spanking-new computer, two weeks vacation in the northeast, a beautiful wedding, grandparents, 2 great-grandparents, 4 college friends, and lots of blueberries by a pretty little new england pond.

We are now back home, still looking for a new home, resuming playgroup activities, nodding at "he got so tall!" exclamations, and sighing at current events. If every day I make 4 healthy 3-part portable toddler meals, change 5 diapers, redirect 20 inappropriate behaviors, calm 6 meltdowns, play intellectually stimulating games and sing funny songs, wipe a little face and hands 12 times, wash 30 dishes, reinforce 100 words of language, wrestle a 3-foot long kicking and screaming body at least once, read 6 books out loud, hand over my keys on demand, and explain my actions every 2 minutes...do you think this will pay me enough to cover a mortgage? Because I don't personally need a bailout, I just need a little home with a sunny yard.

driveby posting

We ordered a new home computer, but it will not arrive for another week still. The internet cravings are subsiding, and I am making great headway on my current book. I have come into Denis' office this afternoon to catch up on email a bit and post this update, but what's with all these typos I keep having to correct? A week or so without a computer and my speed and accuracy are down?

I'll just chalk it up to another thing breaking. Seriously it feels like everything has been breaking down lately. Remember the day I broke a bowl and the breadbox within hours of each other? Well that's nothing compared to the expensive fixes, replacements, and tests we have had to pay for during the past few months. First, our tv. Not an essential item in our world, but we thought it would be fun to take the opportunity to upgrade to a flatscreen (a small one, but we like it). Then the Subaru clutch and a bearing, whatever that does. Then the truck needed a new oxygen sensor. We had some pricey medical testing. Some dental work needs to be redone thanks to a quack dentist who took lots of our money for nothing but pain. Then we had to call a plumber for some ongoing issues. And of course the computer virus problems. And finally a broken driver seatbelt on the truck, which is of course an uncommon part that took 3 days to deliver.

All of this hasn't helped my attitude towards the properties our realtor has been showing us this week. Oh, it just needs a new furnace, water heater, kitchen, bathroom, windows, and floors? And it costs us our life savings? Ok, sure, I'll sign up for that.

Then I realize that those expensive medical tests turned up nothing. We are all healthy, and that is no small thing to be grateful for. So go ahead mechanical, electronic, material world, go ahead and break. It doesn't really hurt us after all.

Stay tuned for news from Boston after I take a 6 hour flight alone with Mr Squirmy!