Contrary to popular belief

and contrary to ANYTHING ANY of you people might tell me. . .I have had in engrained from birth that I, yes I, as Queen of my castle am solely personally responsible for the happiness of all of the castle's inhabitants. . .yea verily from Lady in Waiting and Squire all the way up to the King himself.

It is a tight rope walk--a delicate balancing act--a juggling of wills and wants/won'ts and needs and preferences and at times all I can do is just keep the balls in the air. Now some of you will tell me that it is NOT my job--and I whole-heartedly completely believe you. . .I'm just sayin' that no matter what logical portion of my brain holds tightly to that belief, the blood of good wives and mommas that flows through my veins from generations hence cries out that I can believe all of this new-fangled modern smack all I want, but truth is truth and the truth is that if you are trying to be a wife and momma worth your salt you (secretly) hold to the iron-clad belief that everyone's happiness is your own personal responsibility.

Case in point. We do not have cable. Tony is a PBS/Discovery channel/Risk playin'/Eagle Scout who loves himself a good, informative trivia filled documentary that can make him Master of All Time at Trivial Pursuit--and also make him able to answer any of one million questions that I or the kids might ask him 'cause he ALWAYS knows the answer. Because we don't have cable, he records shows on his tv at school overnight--just pushes the button and lets her run--for us to have a never-ending stream of wonderful trivia(l) documentaries. This morning he was watching the making of snack foods--from pork rinds to gummy bears. Now, he deserves to be able to do this. He spends all week long in starched shirts and ties and came straight home from school yesterday and mowed the front and back yards (yes in November the man has an obsession with the length of the grass in his yard and likes to keep it just so) and then was awakened at 6:30 this morning by a child that we have trouble waking up all week long.

On the other hand--it's Saturday morning--and after all of the news shows that means cartoons--and now NBC has grown some scruples--or is just cashing in on all of us moral people--and they have VEGGIE TALES on Saturday mornings. And then after some show about a Dragon with a catchy little theme song, and another cartoony pre-school thing. . .they have either LARRY BOY or THREE TWO ONE PENGUINS.

We are a two t.v. family. The second is very small with a built in VCR mainly used to record things or in the car when we travel to Louisiana. . .but sometimes we will send the kids to view something on that tv. It does not get NBC--UNLESS--to my discovery this morning--Someone (see the Queen) stands next to it and holds the antenna just so and has her hand go numb while holding it which is where the King found her after I--I mean the Queen--sent the Lady in Waiting downstairs to ask him to come up when he got to the next commercial--even though what he is watching is on tape and can be stopped and rewound at any old time.

At which point the Queen declared that everyone's personal happiness was NOT her responsibility and the King wisely asked the Lady in Waiting and the Squire if they would like to go on a field trip with him so he could donate blood (yes--really--he has his 8 GALLON mug already and is a rare blood donor and little tiny newborn babies can use the blood he donates if they are sick so how could I not HELP but love the man). And they said, "Yes." And so they have left and I have poured forth my woes unto you oh unsuspecting blog reader.

Not woes really--just weighty things that dangle around and drop and fall and roll around from time to time. . .