Tra la, tra la...

Whoa, sorry to go all melodramatic on you down there in that post! As rough as my brother has it, and in spite of a depressing family history, I have realized that I am a complete optimist. No, truly, I mean, you've seen some of those properties we've involved ourselves in, right? And how about homeschooling? You've definitely got to be pretty darn optimistic to take that one on, eh? What do you know, I might even be confident too, or smug, but whatever! Excelsior!

It also occurred to me that, really, if our house burned down, there's not a whole lot I'd miss. Clothes, furniture, toys, even photographs, all of it but for a very few items of historical importance, which I am now determined to donate to a museum for safekeeping, could be gone forever and I'd be okay with that. We've been dragging the same old furnishings around for years -- one comfy couch is as good as another. Toys make great collector's items down the road, especially those Beanie Babies collectibles (but only if you've kept your original Ty tags attached and safely sheathed in plastic sleeves so your kids can't ruin them), but consider this: My streamlining makes yours more valuable. You can thank me later. Like maybe the year 2305. As long as I'm not a Swiss cheese brain, images are more safely and permanently stored in my head. And just in case I do become a Swiss cheese brain, my mother always has duplicates. Sure it's fun to find a picture of Grandma or Great Grandma as a little girl, but vintage photographs are special because they are rare; years ago people didn't shoot three rolls of film for Junior's Kindergarten graduation or watch such momentous occasions through the eyepiece of their video camera. Maybe people these days have shorter attention spans and require constant review of their activities lest they forget. Have you ever been to a birthday party where the candles have been blown out and then relit because the event was not adequately captured on film the first time? My mother has cards and school papers and photo albums galore and she has decided it's time to pass all those treasures on to me. I'm already overburdened by the amount of papers I've kept for my own kids. Losing some of our books would be tough, though. Fantasy lists of what five or ten books/items/etc. you'd take to a desert island have always intrigued me, mostly because having already done the (partially) deserted island thing, I must make plans in case, you never know, we end up in some other remote locale. See! More optimism!