Things have been going pretty good around the house, but last night we ended up addressing the 'elephant in the room'.  There's so much more to the evening, but I won't hash it all out here.  I've been processing it all this morning and looking to Brene Brown for a bit of clarity and inspiration.

“It’s not about ‘what can I accomplish?’ but ‘what do I want to accomplish?’ Paradigm shift.”

~ Brene Brown

Years ago, my big sister told me, "I never let go of something I can't afford to lose."  She said she never wanted money or material things to ruin a relationship, so although she was always pretty generous about helping people out, she never loaned, gave, or let people borrow anything she would be upset about never seeing again.  Good stuff. I adopted that rule and made it my own long ago.  I haven't always upheld it in my weaker moments, but I always consider it when I'm faced with a decision on where to spend my time, money, and energy.  It helps ward off unnece

Blending families sometimes feels as futile as mixing oil and water, but there ARE things we can do to help curb the chaos and save our sanity!  I thought I'd start taking Tuesdays to share helpful tips I've picked up over the years and more recently from other STalkers.  I hope you find something to help get a little closer to "living the dream" and would love for others to share any tips they have on the topic in the comments below.

I knew something big was coming with SD17 (SD16...she had a birthday) and so did many of you STalkers following my blog posts. If you called it....consider this story an affirmation of your perceptive awesomeness and ability to stop BS in it's tracks.  If you didn't see it coming and are still giving your self-destructive teens the benefit of the doubt...well, let this be a cautionary tale!  If you don't have time or energy to read this long post in its entirety, jump to the bottom for the MORAL OF THE STORY. 

Here we go...