Last night Brianna said, "You know, when Poon--that boy in my class--when he turned five, he got restless. I hope I don't get restless when I turn five." I said, "Wow--he got restless? What did he do?" "Oh, first, he started wrestling with people, and then it just got worse from there."

We found out that the big, unhealthy mimosa tree next to our old house fell down in the last storm. It is blocking the neighbor's driveway. We considered going over to cut some of it up for firewood, since our new house has a fireplace. Paul said, "Wow, if Stuart (our handy friend who has cut up the huge branches that have fallen from other old trees at that house) were here, he'd be all over that like a . . ., like a . . ."
"Like a saw!" Brianna said. So there you go.

This morning, Brianna said, "There goes Blackie, drinking from the sink again. But sometimes, when you're moving and getting settled in a new house and have lots of boxes, that's what happens. That's just life when you move with four cats."
Yes, we are up to four cats. Probably against our better judgment, we managed to catch the little kitten that had begun using our old garage as his hotel and restaurant. It comes out and meows loudly to get your attention and wants you to talk to it, but if you take a step toward it, it runs off at full speed and hides. The few times we have actually caught it, it starts purring and then just kind of melts into ecstasy while we pet it. You'd think it would let you touch it the next time you see it, but no--the same routine continues. Very passive-aggressive little cat. The other cats are not too fond of it. We'd like to think they are playing chase and rough-housing a bit, but I don't know . . . Hopefully all of the cats will work up their nerve to go back to being mostly outdoor cats again soon.

We have, by the way, closed on the house! We are now home-owners. It is a great little house, and it is so very OURS. Of course, two days after closing, I felt exceedingly conscious that the best paying ESL jobs are in Asia, which is not where we just --OHMYGOSH!--bought a house! But I feel sure that one of the reasons that I have coped as well as I have with recent outpourings of stress on my life is that I have been spending time painting creatively in our new house.

We are just about finished painting Brianna's room--only the door remains, and a second coat on the frame for the huge closet door, and Brianna needs to add the centers to the three flowers she painted herself. The walls are sunny-day-blue, with grass all the way around the floorboards and lots of flowers and half a dozen butterflies. Brianna helped me do all the grass, but I did the flowers and butterflies one day last week when I got home a few hours before she did. She came in and looked around and said, "You know which flower is my favorite? This one. No, that one. No, this one. Well, they're all my favorite." Then she looked around again and said, "Oh, Mom! It's more beautiful than I wanted it to be!"

Last night, Brianna was looking out the window at the night sky, and I heard her singing, "God is so proud of me. God is so proud of me. He's looking down on me. He's looking down on me." Her confidence always amazes me.