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Before flying home I was able to watch Ruby and Cora at their ballet class, and have breakfast with the girls. The week went so.stinkin.fast!

Look at those cute little Darcy feet. She's just a little munchkin but she is spunky!  The flights home went well. We had a delay in SLC which caused a missed connection in St Paul but Delta got me out on the next flight and all was well. 

 This morning I had an early morning appointment and then went to work.  Subbing high school sometimes gives me time to read my textbooks, today it did, and I was very grateful because I was feeling a little behind. 

I did my family counseling reading, and it is very interesting. It makes me think about the traits and habits and hang ups and good qualities that I got from being raised by my parents and the ones that my children got from being raised by me. 

Being a long time NCIS fan, and loving Gibb's rules for living, I appreciated Whicker's rules for living for therapists:

1. Relegate every significant other to second place.

2. Learn how to love. Flirt with any infant available. Unconditional positive regard probably isn’t present after the baby is 3 years old.

3. Develop a reverence for your own impulses and be suspicious of your behavior sequences.

4. Enjoy your mate more than your kids and be childish with your mate.

5. Fracture role structures at will and repeatedly.

6. Learn to retreat and advance from every position that you take.

7. Guard your impotence as one of your most valuable weapons.

8. Build long-term relations so you can be free to hate safely.

9. Face the fact that you must grow until you die. Develop a sense of the benign absurdity of life—yours and those around you—and thus learn to transcend the world of experience. If we can abandon our missionary zeal, we have less chance of being eaten by cannibals.

10. Develop your primary process living. Evolve a joint craziness with someone you are safe with. Structure a professional cuddle group so you won’t abuse your mate with the garbage left over from the day’s work.

11. As Plato said, “practice dying.”

It also made me think about the importance of marriage and that dyadic relationship.  Many Most All marriages are hard at times, some at more times than others but there is great value in preserving them and great benefits for families and society. One key is to make your relationship a triad with God. That gives it stability and strength. Another thing is to choose your perspective.  For example, I could have been frustrated that I came home and the house wasn't as tidy as I would have liked.  Or I could be grateful that three new trees had been planted. It's funny how such a simple decision makes a big difference, and also how much weight and baggage there is to wade through in making that choice...most of it not really about the trees or the tidiness.