Assortment

1. We have been bribing the children lately, to great success. The promise of four little chocolate chips was enough to get Helen to ride her bike (with training wheels, of course) somewhere besides the garage--and after less than a week, she's asking me if we can go on a bike ride after dinner. "Absolutely!" I always say. "Let me get my shoes on." Si is harder in this department--even as a baby he would narrow his eyes in the face of a parental proposition as he performed a detailed cost-benefit analysis--but if the price is right, he'll usually go for it (running! times tables! showers!)

2. I'm wondering how to get bribery to work on MYSELF. I have a horrible bad habit--it's called the internet--and I am determined to get my life back. Or at least my daytime productivity. Based on my faith that if you do something for ten days it becomes a habit (or is it two weeks? ANYWAY, some manageable amount of time), I am strictly rationing my (cough at work cough) internet time. After ten days, hopefully it will be habit. After a month, I'm thinking that I should get some sort of reward. Only, what? Ooh! I know! A major house renovation! Oh, right. We're getting that anyway, AND it's using up all our money.

Maybe I could give myself some chocolate chips (only, again, that would involve an interim time of NOT giving myself chocolate chips, which would mean that instead of embarking on one self-improvement project, I'd have to manage two--and, well, that's just too much self control right now. Especially when I don't have a kitchen.)

3. Actually,we do still have a kitchen, but its days are numbered. Also, all of our couches have gone into hiding. Now we just sit on cushions on the floor, waiting for the contractor to come.