Do we all have distant, nagging migraine symptoms, or is it just me? Do I have a headache from all of the stuff piled around the house, or is all this stuff piled about because I couldn't take the headache from where it was stowed before? Try not to trip. Stuff piled on other stuff! You could hit your head, and start all over.

The Little Ditchman has a new phrase. She will walk into the room and approach you, look you in the eye and say, "Once upon a time..." whereupon you hang there -waiting. She doesn't know where to go from there. Sometimes, with prodding, we get a "There was a booootiful princess..." but it still hangs there. You can't blame her. For eons those have been challenging words to follow, especially if you're trying to keep someone's attention. Anyway, God bless her for giving it a shot. I think she's really just trying to gently tell me to get off the computer and read her a story, dammit! You can see the demands on her face: I'm trying to be nice about it here! Lately, if you mention the word "work" her lip starts to quiver and she reminds you of the other word she recently learned: "sad".

Which is awful. Then I rush off to work and try not to think about it, remind myself that we had a quality few days together, just me and her, last weekend. It's when mommy has to work that it gets really tough. You think maybe that if you work harder it will help, but that's not really a solution. Children don't want you to work harder. They don't want anything you're working for. They want you.

"Once upon a time" it made perfect sense to have one working parent and one nurturing one. How'd it all end up this way? Because of the stuff, that's why. But we don't need all the stuff. What we need is each other.


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