Julian's Mom

Well, welcome to mybloggers.As another solitary person, I think alone time is highly under-rated.

I'm always looking for good books to read...so thanks for the review.You must be a fast reader...

Hardly amateur! When I draw stick people they really are stick people!Wonderful painting and wonderful talent.

I hope that reasonable help can be found...it seems so many "workers" are more concerned about their paycheque than their charges.This was such a wonderful post! Amazing, really.I realized how fast things were moving when all three of my kids started saying "Can I see?!" every time a picture was taken. They've never even known film, only digital photography.

My mother has made my girls several sweaters with that kind of yarn and it is beautiful.We get all kinds of wildlife here...you're a braver gal than I.

Could you leave for a few days while the kids are gone? You could tell him him and his sh*t needs to be out by the time you come home or you'll call the authorities (he doesn't need to know that they won't actually do anything...). I think you're a wonderful lady who has a warm heart and he is taking advantage of it. Give him the boot.

I don't believe that we have anything like that here but then, I've been out of school for a long time and my girls are still years away from high school. It's easy to blame technology just as it's easy to blame teachers and parents, alike. But it's likely a combination of things, I suppose. I do find, in my limited experience, that the quality of teaching is diminishing as the standards keep rising. My oldest daughter studies things in fourth grade that I didn't start learning until fifth or sixth and yet...her teacher is far more concernced with her own allergies and making her class "scent free" for her comfort (I'm biased here because I can't help but wonder why the heck she's teaching in a public school if her allergies are that bad) then discussing with me my daughter's progress. On the flip side, my middle daughter has a teacher that I remember from my own days in elementary school and has been doing so much better than previous years. But again...I have limited experience and I'm the mom which complicates/biases my opinion.Albert Einstein said, "imagination is more important than knowledge". I also tend to think that the complete lack of creative time in school isn't helping anything. But I should save this long winded comment for my own blog.

Michael Jackson once said, "If you enter this world knowing that you are loved and leave knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with". I've always liked that.I loved reading about your grandmother...makes me wonder...perhaps a life that has it's challenges and more than a fair share of sorrow somehow helps in the quest for overall happiness and inner peace (if said challenges and sorrow are dealt with in a healthy way). I, too, had an abuse filled childhood and an early adulthood with a lot of trauma and sometimes I think that's why I can get through some of the challenges and hardships I face now. Because, in a way, if I survived the ugliness, etc. then the rest is a piece of cake. I think we choose happiness, every day, by choosing our perspective and maybe once you've lived through something really horrible, it's easier to see the bright side of something that would crush another.

And blogging...blogging helps.

I heard glowing reviews all over the place but it just didn't resonate with me. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one.

That was a perfect post.I rarely watch the news because my Dad is a news-junkie. I figure if something really, really important happens, he'll fill me in.

There isn't anything I can say that hasn't already been said here in the comments...and likely said better. But if it makes you feel any better, I am unhappy, too.

That's unbelievable and awesome.So, unbelievable awesome then?

Excellent!

Holy sh*t...we really *are* soul sisters!I can't wait for the next post to hear about how it all went down. I think it's very brave of you to start again...never easy...but almost always worth it.

This went over my head.I was attracted to your blog by your avatar. Is that Small from Big and Small?