Drop & Dash

We did the drop and dash today. I had court and Erich had a "stop ship" (apparently an emergency in the automotive manufacturing world). Eli had a temperature and was altogether cranky, but we had no choice but to take him to daycare, give him a kiss, and slink out, hoping that nobody would notice his glassy eyes. I called to check on him immediately after court and was told that he was listless and felt warm, so immediately went to pick him up. I took him to urgent care, where he was diagnosed with a mild ear infection. The medication kicked in right away and he was feeling much better. He went into my office with me to take care of some urgent matters, then we went out to lunch at Chili's (although he objected: "Chili's is gross, Mom.") Then we shopped at JoAnne's to get material for Nolah's Halloween costume. It's amazing to me how well behaved he is when he is away from Nolah, and how easy it is to deal with just one child...it's not just half the work, it's somehow a mere fraction of the work. Speaking of fractions, I'm still challenged to figure out how to live on a fraction of our old income now that I'm working part-time and we're paying through the nose for daycare. I'm very proud of my accomplishments this week though. When we were out of cleaning solution, I mixed vinegar, water and Borax, and cleaned the entire downstairs. Tonight, I created a completely edible meal out of half a box of macaroni, frozen ground venison from the freezer, handfulls of oregano, basil and fennel from the garden, a can of tomato sauce from the pantry, and half a container of ricotta that needed to be used up - seriously, delicious. Three years ago, this scenario would have qualified as "there's nothing in the house to eat" and we would have been hightailing it to Bahama Breeze for cubans and cocktails.

My Dog Ate my Blog

This is exactly what I feared - I would get caught up in other things and not make time to keep up with my family blog. I had a bit of a life changing event last night though. I met with new clients which included a ten year old girl who witnessed her mother's murder at the hands of her father within the past year. I really can't imagine too much that's worse than that. The girl's grandmother (and mother of murder victim) gave me a little card with a picture on it that described her daughter - how she did her own plumbing and home improvement projects, how she cooked great meals and how her children were both 4.0 students. It just wasn't enough...I found myself wanting to know so much more about this person, who was victimized by domestic violence, but also had an entire history outside of the victimization. So I hope to be able to record a little more of my family history - as mundane as it is. But I also want to say this: I rarely encounter a family or an individual who has not experienced domestic violence, abuse, (etc) in some capacity. A lot of that has to do with the type of work I do, but a lot of it doesn't. I just want to say that it's still going strong, and it's still primarily women who are being victimized - it's not just something that used to happen in the 60's. I'd like to think society has moved beyond the "Why doesn't she just leave?" mentality but I'm still encountering things that tell me that that's not necessarily true. Why don't we address this more often in school? We address preventing pregnancy, and teach CPR, and require a semester of health education. I have to think that teaching high schoolers about resources and teaching boys about acceptable behavior in a relationship must be just as critical.