Where were we...?

Why was it so easy to keep up the blog while we travelled? Why has it been two months since our last post? Certainly the technological challenges were greater in Viet Nam. Getting and keeping a connection felt like a real accomplishment. Back home, you'd think we could post something mildly interesting at least every week. -- But, of course, when we were travelling, there was nothing else to do. The entire world had contracted to just me and E and TM and our little corner of Viet Nam. When the boy was finally asleep after a harrowing day of getting from one meal to another, and through one meal after another, and through one great big noisy fit (GBNF) after another, it seemed easy to pour out the day's adventures to the waiting hordes back home. -- Now... not so much.

Oddly, I was compelled to peck out these thoughts by two things: (1) the current GBNF being thrown by TM just across the room, firmly pinned in E's arms... and (2) reading the current adventures of Mrs. Broccoli Guy as they wend their way through the adoption maze in HaNoi as we sit here (http://mrsbroccoliguy.blogspot.com/).

We haven't had many GBNFs or rages by TM over the last two months. He's really adjusting remarkably well. But every now and then, like this evening, we get a mild taste of our Viet Nam experience. Very mild. But enough. -- And poor Mrs. Broccoli Guy and family are having a more challenging time in Viet Nam than we had, I think. -- Over the past few months at home, TM has settled in well, and life has gone on normally. So normally, that it's hard to figure out what to report in the blog. So much happens, and yet it seems as if there's so little to say about it all.

So, here we are. What's new to report?

(a) We have flesh-eating beetles in the basement. Eldest daughter ordered them from a science catalog in an effort to remove the flesh from a frog skeleton. (The frog in question was a former pet who had passed on to the great lilypad in the sky. Daughter briefly mourned, and then began planning for how to mount the skeleton.) -- For those playing along at home, we discovered that frog skeletons are too delicate, and the beetles (actually larvae, to be accurate) consume the connective tissue, too, so we're left with a pile of tiny bones mixed into a lotta wood chips and other organic matter. -- Now we're not sure what to do with the larvae/beetles. Eldest daughter has mentioned that we could keep a sharp eye out for larger roadkill....

(b) The raccoons still live in the attic. (Don't ask.) I shot at one with a bow and arrow. I think I might have bruised him/her. That'll larn 'im.

(c) Life is one long round of songs from the musical Oliver. The homeschool theater group (Thin Ice Theater) is doing Oliver, and every Monday the chorus is here singing. Even D and TM have learned quite a few of the songs, after their fashion. They're good on the melody, but they tend to make up syllables where they don't know the words. Our family is deeply involved.... Various of us are playing Oliver, orphan/pickpocket, Mrs. Sowerberry, and Fagin... and choral director.

(d) We travelled briefly to Pennsylvania to visit my 105-year-old grandmother. She is a remarkable woman, at any age. This is someone who, when asked on her 105th birthday what she was doing 100 years ago to the day, needed only a short pause to recall that she had gotten a new kitten for her birthday, dressed it in her doll clothes, and pushed it around in her doll buggy. How's that? And I bet you aren't sure what you were doing last Monday.

(e) Hmmm.... See? Can't think of a thing. I know we're busy, because we can often be heard to comment, "Gee, we're awfully busy." But what is there to say about it?

Maybe we'll think of more later.