Saw an orange moon tonight.

Had a disagreement about it with Gideon.

"It's a sun, I promise you that."

Even after I pointed out that he once "dreamed" of an orange moon, the same dream as Quack, he was so adamant that the sun was out at night, I let it drop. Not that my being quiet stopped him from an additional 20 minutes of continued insistence that it was the sun. This kid should join the debate club.

During the summer, I'm doing very little work during the day. I'm keeping busy with Gideon. Today was the waterpark. I suffered some sun exhaustion, came home and napped in bed with next to me, Gideon "working" on his laptop.

Gideon "works" too much. He's going to be shattered when he realizes he won't be allowed to work on our trips to Stockholm or the beach.

This weekend I ordered two books. One is a book on fairies and elves. I just realized he had no idea what a fairy was!!!! How did I allow that to happen? Well, I did bring home a fairy book from Dublin last year, but he never wants me to read it to him. So I'll blame the teachers. What are they teaching in that fancy preschool? What do they have against fairies? Why do Methodists hate fairies so much?

The second is a book of unsanitized fairy tales, a reprint from the '50's. He has other fairy tale books, but they're totally whack. The wolf doesn't kill anybody and never dies himself -- they just never "hear from him again" like he got a little rowdy so the bouncer tossed him out and now he's too humiliated to return. Grandma doesn't get eaten, she hides in the god damn closet. I think the Gingerbread man gets eaten, but he is a cookie after all. The whole point of fairy tales is to prepare children for the cruel world. These over-edited versions really cross the line.

Anyhow, I used to strive for balance but my inner fairy told me I was doing it wrong. Now I focus on boundaries and that brings me closer to the elusive balance. This summer, I only work on No Tell and other projects during the late evenings. That's it. If work doesn't get done, it'll get done the next day or next week or next month or whenever. I'm using boundaries with the succubus-types too. I used to feel obliged. I don't feel so obliged anymore. They can go drain somebody else's soul. I offer Grandma and the Big Bad Wolf.

Part of the reason I changed blogs is about boundaries. If that's not obvious to you, that's OK. It doesn't have to be.