If I can successfully nuture not only house plants, but also a dog, I should be able to remain faithful to a blog, no? I'm going to give it a go.

Today Violet did a weird thing when her dad came home from work with her uncle Matt. She was fine, happy, her own normal giddy-self, then when I helped her "walk" toward her uncle, she broke down-- melt-down style. She wouldn't even let her dad hold her. She was sobbing and shaking and she nestled her hot and flushed little face down into my neck and pant-breathed, you know the type, the kind of crying when you were little where it felt like you couldn't breathe. Very weird. Almost flattering, but something to worry about, as the little tot has never done this before. She was really tired, so hopefully that is the explanation.

In other employment news, I chatted with a guy from the US Fish and Wildlife Service today about getting a full-time, well-paying job working in environmental education near Jordan, Minnesota. It would be a dream job, but it would require me shuffling quite a bit of my life around, and it would mean leaving Violet. I don't know if I have the heart. My mother says I should make adult and career-oriented decisions-- but she's (Violet) just starting to get awesome--- and what will be more fun than spending the summer with a one-year-old?!? Okay, maybe not everyone thinks that would be fun, but I'm ecstatic.

We had a terrific thunderstorm here this evening-- all lightning and thunder rattling the loose window panes. It was great because it's still early enough for me not to non-sensically worry that we'll all be sucked away by horrendous a tornado. Ah, lilapsophobia.

School is good. I'm reading Punished By Rewards by the human-ephemeral-spring of refreshingly right-on educational ideas, Alfie Kohn. I'm also taking an online class and reading the decidedly more controversial Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. I'm not as impressed with this text-- wish I could be, he's such a raving hippie.