Saturday, January 02, 2010

Quiet Saturday Morning

Yesterday was so relaxing to share the first day of the year with my family. One of our gifts for Jim on Christmas was the HBO series, John Adams. I had read reviews that sang the praises of not only the production and casting, but also the faithfulness to the actual truth of this story. So yesterday between various household tasks- bring in wood for the fireplace, care for animals, peel potatoes- and mealtime, we watched the first three episodes. Years ago I read the book John Adams, by David McCullough. My memory fails me in the finer details, but thusfar they seem to be doing a fine job in not "PC-ifying" the story.

I was the second to bed last night, Rebekah being the first. She has always been keenly aware of her need for reasonable amounts of sleep. The others stayed up reading or working on a project for Erin's room, which is almost finished.

When I came downstairs this morning to get my coffee, I saw that Vali had not been put behind the hallway door for the night. We have learned that she needs to be confined when we aren't able to observe her, because she behaves badly if she thinks no one is watching. Sure enough, the downstairs is strewn with the contents of the kitchen trash can this morning. I don't think she got far enough down to get the pork roast bones, which would have been a huge prize, but also very dangerous for her. The mess is, of course, a big problem. A potentially larger problem with this tendency of hers is the danger of eating everything she finds that smells so great- to her. Poisoning herself, or swallowing something that would need to be surgically removed is rather likely. She really is her own worst enemy.

So not only are we facing the task of taking down the tree today and getting other end-of-vacation chores done, but we get to start off with cleaning up another of Vali's messes.

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