Wrap your head with this material...

I like shopping for things online even though it doesn't get me out of standing in line. In the mountains where we live, the post office does not generally deliver to homes. Which means we all have PO boxes and elicit a certain amount of scrutiny from retailers and banks and also have to stand in line for all our packages that don't fit in our letter-sized PO boxes. It's annoying but it's also a nice time for my mind to wander. In stores, I find my need to pay attention to everything exhausting. I get overstimulated from an hour of shopping because I simply must look at EVERYTHING and everyone in the store. This is tenfold more difficult if either, much less, both of my children are with me as then I must also be vigilant for their locations and that's no mean feat. It means that in addition to the lay of the store and its contents and sales and customers, I also keep track of my kids and within 15 minutes I need a margarita. But online, I can focus on just sear...

Cathartic things I've done Chopped down a tree with a chain saw while standing on a chain link fence Taken a hatchet to a tree stump while angry Scribbled furiously on a piece of paper sprinted full speed Proud family moments When my mom and I played swords with the giant dead tree limbs we'd just cut down with the chainsaw Moving my sons' bunkbeds apart the very day my oldest admitted to being afraid of spiders as the reason he didn't like sleeping on the top bunk Watching my son pedal his bike for the first time and letting go knowing he might fall and turning to see my husband walking behind us with my other son on his shoulders. My husband getting a job as the executive director of a victims advocacy agency and doing so memorably by talking about the importance of targeting men and boys to end violence Things that make me happy Watching Aspen leaves flutter Feeling fresh air on my arms Writing Finding out someone liked my book Running Finishing thi...