Stream of consciousness...Big Bad Collars.

BABY STELLA

Now that I have loured you in with an adorable puppy picture...

I will attempt to claim intellectual identity by trying to fake literary content as "stream of consciousness" (aka rambling my thoughts along...)

First and Foremost:  I'M BACK!  It is hard to reenter the real world filled with responsibilities.  Part of me is hermit...I really could just go out in the cabin in the deep woods and be happy.  I was very content my years of teaching on a very rural island in Japan.  And the Grand Canyon is just that...very grand!  I always try to think what it was like to first discover or stumble upon something...just imagining what it would have been like to come out of the pines and just view into that gaping, impassable hole.  No wonder Powell was determined to explore every end of it!

Crashing down on me is the fact that the holidays are HERE!!!  I am sooooo not ready.  So assuming you are like me...low on cash, low on time...I will put out some ideas for food and gifts that are high impact yet low cost...in cash and time.  (And the big question is...will I actually finish last year's christmas gifts before this year's holiday?!?)

On the subject of money...and little anecdote that may soothe your cash flow soul:

My kids piggy banks have been sooo tapped out!  I was just talking with a friend  who was suffering guilt raiding the kid's bank to help make Santa's visit possible.  Now I will say my kids are very proud to have helped the family:  each have bought groceries when we couldn't have otherwise and each was inordinately joyed to take the family out for dinner as a grand treat when there were no other treats.  With that said, my 8 year old came home with the funniest story from school:

Apparently Gwyneth was describing a hat she was dying to buy to her girlfriends.  She had to explain, however, that she couldn't get it until her parents had the money to pay her back the money they had borrowed for groceries.  Well, apparently every kid's piggy bank in Gilbert, AZ has been raided by their parents!  The girls, 5 or 6 of them, all chimed in that their piggy banks were empty too!  "Ya, my mom had to empty mine."  "Oh, mine's been empty forever..."  But the best part was how all chipper these kids were about it.  No one was sad or angry...they all laughed about their piggy bank raiding parents. 

They were all honest and hopeful.

I hope to take a cue from them.