http://heather.unit-e.com life and times of heather brandon Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:44:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The major news since I last posted is that I got adopted. Yes, it was perhaps a bit odd to do this at my age, but I needed to and it was good for me as well as for my stepfather, who had originally offered to do it in 1984 ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2010/03/01/entropy/ A very odd home invasion took place at my house yesterday, of the mild variety, where the intruder did not apparently realize she was engaged in something illegal, and in fact did not even seem to realize she had entered the wrong home. I had stepped away from the house for ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2008/11/18/when-strangers-visit-and-no-one-is-home/ A good family friend of mine does craniosaccral therapy, midwifery and various other health and healing practices. One time, when I was sharing with her some personal difficulties I was experiencing, she said matter-of-factly, "Oh, you're having trouble with your throat chakra." I gave her a quizzical look. She explained that ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2008/09/27/untangling-the-mysterious-throat-chakra/ I went outside to weed and water in my front yard this morning, intending only to do it for a few minutes. I knew the plants were thirsty and had been for days. There was no particular sense to it, except just some visceral connection I fancy I establish with ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2008/07/12/clearing-channels/ One of my kids is getting pretty good on his skateboard. Here he is making his way to the neighbors' house for a cookout last weekend. This video bit doesn't really show off his mad skillz, but you can get a sense of his confidence. When we toured a bike ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2008/04/22/skateboarding-double-dutch-and-an-addiction-to-turtlenecks/ Our family took a trip a couple of months ago far, far away to the west coast of the US so we could visit my brother and his family. He's a stay-at-home dad raising three children close in age to my own. His wife is a family practitioner at a ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2008/03/28/a-long-way-from-home/ At some point, while I was immersed in crash courses on parenting in the initial midst of having three babies born back-to-back, I remember sage advice from a class I once took at a parenting resource center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The class was always about parenting in general but ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2008/03/07/probably-puberty/ I love to host people at my house so it's been a really long, difficult transition of not doing that, and for no particularly good reason except some belief that houses have to be in perfect condition before it's alright to invite folks over. Since we've been renovating our kitchen ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2008/03/01/hosting-and-enjoying-it/ Several things have been going on around here that have, for one reason or another, prevented me from feeling as though I can write (which I sorely feel I need to be able to do) or even take a few steps back on occasion and simply ponder. Among those things ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2007/12/17/balancing-acts-and-the-people-who-love-them/ When I was about the age my kids are now, my family had been undergoing upheaval for a few years. We uprooted in early 1975 from our Phoenix home, where I'd been since birth, and transplanted to Pittsburgh, in relation to my father's work for the aluminum-fabrication company Alcoa. We ... http://heather.unit-e.com/2007/10/18/family-relations/