Anything but the weather

I am trying -- honest! -- to make this blog a weather-free zone for the next few days, so that means even if we've had our eleventh day of 100+ degrees, and even if the bank thermometer said 95 degrees when we whizzed past at 9:45 p.m., I'm not saying anything about it. Whining doesn't help, right? So you didn't hear it from me.

Today started off rockily (is that a word?). My first communication with my husband involved him sharing the news that Ian and Eliza's beloved pets, Agent Fluffy and Snowball, were missing from their pen, with no trace except a few white feathers. Hearing their tears of anguish when he sat them down upon their awakening was almost more than I could bear.

Onward and upward: I read a beautifully illustrated version of Bambi, the original tale, to Caroline this morning, and she was both horrified and fascinated, not letting me stop reading even when the tears glistened unshed in those blueberry eyes. Let's just say that the significance of the sentence "Bambi never saw his mother again," was not lost on her, even the tiniest shred.

So basically, Mother of the Year Award officially coming my way today.

But now the children have been bundled off to their grandmother's house for the night (swimming in the afternoon with cousins; tea party with dolls in the morning), and Tim and I took the unheard-of opportunity to attend a prayer meeting at some friends' house. Man, was it ever refreshing to just get out of my little box for a while! You know, the one where it's all about ME -- how am I doing as a wife and mother, how are MY children doing, what's going on with MY friends, will MY husband get a job before we run out of money, blah blah blah. Well, guess what? God is doing something on this earth, and it's sure a whole lot more momentous than whether my kids ate enough fruits and veggies today and what I should order from the Rainbow Resource catalog!

It was so good to get recalibrated, because tomorrow I have to attend a big hearing with some state legislators who need to see the obvious truth that we Texans should be able to buy and drink whatever kind of milk suits us, wherever and whenever we're willing to pay for it. No matter what Big Agribusiness says. God bless America.