Children have never been good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. ~ James Baldwin

Yesterday morning the grandboys and I drove to work with my daughter. I needed to borrow her car to take Dylan to preschool since one of our vehicles is in the shop getting some work done on it. As we drove along my daughter began commenting on "stupid" this and "stupid" that. A voice piped up from the back seat, "Auntie, stupid is a bad word". That stopped her short. "Yes it is, sweetie", she said to Dylan. "I'll try not to say it." That lasted all of about...10 seconds. Over and over, "Stupid is a bad word!" every time she'd say it. At one point she rolled her eyes at me and said, "Enough is enough." But I smiled and said, "Well, you do say it a lot." It's hard not to, driving in Portland rush hour traffic. Even so, it's amazing how well little ears listen to us adults, isn't it? How often is what we say more of "Do as I say, don't do as I do!" when rearing our kids?

Life is like an onion. You peel it off layer by layer and sometimes you cry. ~ Author Unknown

I don't know why but I love these roses.

It's been an eventful week. Nothing earth-shatteringly earth shattering, but information that needs to be taken in, sorted out, and accepted. But you roll with the punches. You try to.

You pick yourself up by the bootstraps.

Brush yourself off.

Keep your chin up.

Don't cry over spilt milk.

Laugh in the face of adversity.

OK, Mom. I still hear your voice echoing in my head.

Thank you for the advice.