Meanwhile, in Montana...

I hope that your Thanksgiving was one filled with reasons to feel grateful — and that nobody tossed the green bean casserole at someone with a different political point of view.

Dear Husband and I spent Thanksgiving here at home demonstrating our flexibility and creativity. For example, we found the mixer but not the mixing bowl. Undaunted, I attempted to make mashed potatoes by holding a small bowl of hot potatoes under the single large beater, which I somehow also found in one of the many boxes taking up space in our house.

While it is true that potatoes flew through the air, hitting me and the wall, it is also true that some of them managed to stay in the bowl, creating a lumpy dish that did have some resemblance to mashed potatoes. #win

I do not eat meat and so it was largely an improvised and plant-based affair but it worked. Somehow.

There is some progress on the kitchen and dining room. For example, the living room is painted!

How is that progress on the kitchen, you wonder?

Well, it goes like this — if we are painting the kitchen and dining room we need to paint the living room as well since it all flows together.

And if we are painting the living room, the wainscoting needs to come off since we took it off in the kitchen/dining area due to water damage and decided not to replace it — and if the wainscoting is coming off in the kitchen, dining area, and living room then certainly we need to take it off in the hall and paint that as well.

Basically, Remodel Creep is real — but since progress anyplace is progress on the whole, painting the living room is progress on the kitchen! Yippee for progress!

The other place that Remodel Creep is occurring is the flooring. We cannot replace the floor in the kitchen, dining area, entry, and hallway and not replace the living room carpet! (Thank Goodness).

BUT we cannot do the flooring until the cabinets go in and they are currently being made someplace and might be here in January.

Did I mention that the two zone heaters in the kitchen/dining area were water damaged and so we have no heat in those areas? No worries — it is only Montana in the winter!

Good thing I love adventures!

Answer to My Daughter by Way of My Father

Dear Daughter frequently wonders what strangeness of character allowed me — a high school drop-out with two kids by age 20 — to march off to college and wind up with three degrees, including a Ph.D., from the University of California at Berkeley.

I have never really had a good answer.

Not only did I lack the skills one usually gets in high school college-prep courses, but I also consistently worked throughout my 13+ years of higher education, had multiple life-altering traumatic events along the way — and of course there were those small humans along for the adventure.

Nobody can accuse me of taking the educational easy route — that is for sure.

But I think I now have her answer, and it came from a snowy bike ride to work.

As I drove to the place where I would start my bike commute yesterday morning, I was talking to my dad on the phone. I explained that it was snowing but that I was going to be riding anyway.

There are so many things he could have said.

“Be careful.”

“Won’t it be icy?”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Let me know when you arrive so I won’t worry about you.”

“Why don’t you just drive all the way in today?”

He said none of those things.

Instead, he told me to stick out my tongue and catch some snowflakes. Seriously. That was his response. Catch snowflakes with my tongue.

And with that simple and whimsical statement, I am finally able to answer Dear Daughter’s question.

As I rode my bike and reflected on my dad’s response, I realized that throughout my life his response to every whacky or unrealistic idea I came up with was along those same lines — stick out your tongue and catch some snowflakes.

My father believes in me — and he always has. I cannot remember a time when he tried to instill doubt in my mind about my ideas, decisions, or plans.

Not at all.

And by doing that — by always trusting and believing in me — my dad taught me to be bold, and to believe in myself.

What an amazing gift.

And that, Dear Daughter, is the answer to your question.

I marched off to a major university — ill-prepared and with two kids in tow — because your grandfather told me to catch snowflakes instead of reminding me to be careful.

It really is that simple. And amazing.

Monday Round-Up

Holy Amazing! Once again, the Kaibab Community had a great weekend.

In California, iPup Tagg rocked it in agility, picking up 40 PACH points and another QQ.

Congratulations to Team Tag!

And back east, Sparkler Kiri had an amazing weekend. Four days of shows with a lovely entry of Specials (Champions and Grand Champions showing in the Best of Breed ring) and she was in the ribbons every day for 17 more points towards her Bronze Grand Championship. Always Owner-Handled, Kiri also received a NOHS Group Placement as well.

Congratulations to Team Kiri on an incredible weekend.

In the Heartland, Hal practiced a yoga move he learned from his Sparkler sister, Abbie — it is called Downward Abbie.

Excellent form, Hal — Abbie is clearly a good teacher.

Meanwhile in Montana, I watch anxiously for signs that Sparkle is coming into season. Any day now.

HAPPY MONDAY to you!