Eva updated her blog today and added so many new pictures of Charlie it is hard to count. If you want to see pictures of the rat we share our time and space with you will have to check out Eva's blog.

Samuel is enjoying his time playing Mario Galaxy and Super Smash...which I got to try out today as well. There is so much going on in that game that my strategy is to just press most of the buttons over and over again in no particular order. This to be honest is my strategy in many of the games I try out. If I try to think about it too clearly I don't do nearly as well. The only time I really put thought into the button pushing is when I fall off a cliff but it doesn't seem to be helping me so maybe I should just continue with my more randomized strategy for that as well. Peach was fun to play and I also played this little vacuum guy and a big penguin? The big penguin was too unwieldly for my taste and I went back to Peach and her kung-fu kicks. Her special button reveals a little mushroom. There are so many mushrooms around, what with us reading Mr. Bass's Planetoid (the third book in the Mushroom Planet series) and all of the mushrooms popping up outside as well. Eerily ironic to be surrounded by so many mushrooms at the same time.

I am spending a lot of time copying music files back and forth to put on my ipod and my little mp3 pebble player, both of which I got for my birthday. It is like a new hobby and I am happy to say I am getting the hang of it and might be able soon to stop spending quite so much time copying files and more time listening to files. I have several "hobbies" already and am reminded of how filled up my time can be when I start a new project. Suddenly all of those quiet spaces I eeked out for myself in the day are filled up with something pressing and I long for fewer hobbies and think thoughts like, "I don't need to listen to any music ever again" or "who needs to eat local- store bought canned peaches is good enough for other kids" or "wash my hair? does that really need to be done..." When my kids were younger I gave up all kinds of niceties like wearing earrings and painting my toe nails and special care clothing and any number of extras that take up time and especially thought and I put my energy into the bare basics. I like keeping things simple so that I can give my thoughts over to what I really want to do and have enough time to do that thoroughly. But sometimes a project pops up like canning peaches or figuring out this music thing and while it takes so much time, it is in the end life-enhancing, just as long as it doesn't go on too long. If it goes on too long, chances are it will be dropped. (I dropped feeding the birds once and missed it so much I brought it back. If things start to press in too tightly, something else has to go.) When the project has ended, or normalized like I am hoping the music project will, I am reminded of how much I enjoy having bits of time here and there that are totally empty and free. And how good that feels. And how much time I really do have. And the kids come along and help me fill it up...