Thanks for kind words and texts yesterday. We all have hard weeks – mine wasn’t exceptionally so – but it has been challenging, and we’re entering the weekend tired and fried. Looking forward to an unscheduled weekend with the family, reading books, snuggling our kitty, playing outside, and eating some more peanut butter cookies. I don’t have much of a mind left this week, but here are a few things on it:

1. Molly. I’m not sure she’s doing any better so far on meds. She’s starting to do some strange things, though, which makes me wonder what’s really going on. And when you have a cat that’s most likely 13 years old, you wonder when it’s the beginning of the end. I sat in the floor of the vet’s office yesterday, petting Molly, letting her climb on me, trying to hold it together. She’s such a good cat – gentle with the kids, calm, friendly. She was our first “baby”, but she was quickly relinquished to “family pet” when BB was born. She took it in stride, going with the flow as she always has.

She’s a tough kitty, though – even Tuesday, as she was starting to get ill, she bravely “defended” our home (from inside the back slider door) against a stray cat, batting and scratching the glass, hissing and spitting at this creature who dared trespass on our property. She’s had some near-death experiences before (have I still not told you those stories?), and I’m hoping this isn’t one of them. Hoping, too, for a weekend of rest for all of us, furry family included. (Photo from the first week we had Molly – October 2001)

2. Focus@Will. I was never the kid who liked to study with music – I needed quiet for challenging tasks. I think it’s because I just didn’t have the right music.  This week, I discovered focus@will.

From their website:

focus@will is a new neuroscience based music service that helps you focus, reduce distractions and retain information when working, studying, writing and reading. The technology is based on hard science and proven to be extremely effective at extending your attention span.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t really read much else about it on their website, but I put the music on a few nights ago to “get some work done”. I’ve been trying to clean up my email unsuccessfully for months. That night, I tried a free sample hour on YouTube, and by the end, I had ZERO messages – a first! I’m sure the science is interesting, and I’ll read up on it eventually, but for now, it feels like magic.

3. Unscheduled time. I think I’ve posted an article along these lines every week this summer. It’s just something that really rings true, that echoes back to the way my summers looked – aimless, random, free. Every day I hope and pray I’m doing this parenting thing right, and I hope these open-ended days are what my kids remember as the best days of childhood. (And this article was fantastic – full of ideas for open-ended materials for play, and for saying “Yes!”)

4. “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables”. I’m probably late on this (just found it via Design Mom’s post from a couple of weeks ago). I have honestly never thought about this. Such a good idea.

5. On a lighter note, this cracked me up. I’m totally guilty of #6. (But not #4. Eww.)

Hope you have a weekend of yummy fruit, good music, and great laughs. Thanks for reading!