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Disorganized attachment and brain washing

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There was a brief moment of sun this afternoon, so I was able to read outside for a bit. Here was my view. It also meant I was able to finish Terror, Love & Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein. (A little light reading for a weekend away.)  What drew me to this book was the juxtaposition of attachment theory and totalist groups or belief systems.  Attachment theory is really a descriptive way to describe how people interact with each other and relate to the world. Usually attachment styles are determined in early childhood by relationships with intimate caregivers.  In a way, the book was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a discussion of which attachment styles are most likely to be susceptible to cults or totalist thinking. It turned out to be far more complicated and interesting that that simple premise. The short version is that any person with any attachment style can be drawn into totalist groups, even those with healthy attachments. What type author really foc

Nothin'

After eight hours of judging a piano festival I've got nothing left. It was a lot of writing. Writing which was done very quickly while trying to give positive feedback and constructive comments that will be helpful but not feel overwhelming. It always feels like a very fine line to walk, because I don't want to be the reason someone decides that playing the piano isn't for them.  So now I'm going to watch brainless television in comfy clothes and not think about anything even remotely constructive. I have some knitting sitting next to my, but that might be too much for my have that still feels a little crampy. I might add a warm cup of tea to the evening's festivities because for the second day in a row, Phoenix has been colder than Chicago. Someone should hire me just to visit places that I expect to be warm and dry so I can bring the cold and rain. 

Teaser

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J. has been working a bit on the barn while I'm in Arizona. 

On bizarrely warm days in March...

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I get to start all my indoor seeds outside. Which seems odd and wrong, but enjoyable. L. and H. healing mix up the soil blocking mixture. All the little soil blocks planted with seeds. So They did get moved inside under the grow light. It is March after all. Kenzie gets to do his favorite thing of napping in the sun.  The pony gets washed! Vienna is normally a very tidy pony, but during her worst days where she was laying down nearly continuously, it was difficult to keep her from lying in her own filth. It wasn't pleasant and I'm sure it bothered her. With the warm weather and her improvement it was a great day to clean her up a bit.  The cat got to do her very favorite thing and go outside. And Y. sat in the dry lot crocheting for a while to keep the poor lonely pony company. (We're working on that lonely bit.) Plus Vienna ended up with a hair scrunchy. What I don't have a picture of is L.'s continuing efforts to train her own chicken army. L. has been profligate

Vocabulary lesson

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Who said school had to be serious? Today we were learning about the animal kingdoms of Monera and Protozoa. Among the phyla in the Protozoans is Vorticella. This organism is bell-shaped and had a stalk which connects the Vorticella to a surface. We learned that organisms in this phyla have no locomotion; they are sessile.  We had come across this word earlier, but I wanted to be sure everyone remembered what it meant, so I clarified. "Sessile means they don't move from one place to another. They stay stuck where they are." Then I added, "Not unlike teenagers on a couch looking at their small electronics."  And then for good measure, I drew a picture for everyone.  And because we were learning about Vorticella, I added one attached to the couch along with the teen.  While no one actually took issue with the idea that teens with small electronics don't move from couches, they did take issue with my drawing, complaining that it wasn't a very good picture. 

No fiber again...

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So how about some gardening? It was a beautiful day and for the first time in ages, everyone seems to be in good health. After the grocery store, I decided I really needed to get the cold hardy seeds in the garden beds.  L. was a huge help. We first needed to clear off the new pile of well composted horse manure, then fill the wheelbarrow and take it to the garden to mix it into the garden beds. I had Bern avoiding it because it felt like a job that would take forever. With, two people, it went far faster than I had expected.  I planted lettuce, spinach, mizuna, Chard, beets, borage, and sugar snap peas. I even planned out the beds so I can plant lettuce in succession in order to prolong the harvest. This seems like a big gardener step from just dumping all the seeds in the beds all at once.  Here they are. Having sat for over a year, the compost is very, well, composted. Our two wheelbarrow fills barely made a dent in what we have. While we still have more beds to fill, there is plent