I’m still reading Patrick–in between crises on the homefront. Believe me, with eight children, there are a lot of crises. The 14-year old just told me that she wants to teach herself to play the piano. She’s a disciplined and self-motivated young lady. The two year old, Z-baby, keeps trying to crawl all over me while I read and while I write. This makes reading and writing rather difficult. The four year old, Bee, just took a bath, and I’m hoping she got some clothes on before turning on the TV to watch ZOOM on PBS. They’re only allowed to watch PBS, and we try to keep it down to an hour or less a day. Some days I just don’t have the energy to set the limits, and then it gets out of hand. The next day we go back to an hour or less of TV. I really don’t want to raise TV addicts or sugar addicts, and with my children, there is a danger of both.

Humor for the day: Leonard Nimoy singing The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. You’ve got to see it to believe it.