First anniversary

We spent our first anniversary in Tahoe with some of our very best friends on a weeklong trip. It was the greatest trip we've ever been on, it'll be hard to top.

When houses become triangles

I found this great article from September 2007 that shows the strength of expression: Using Crayons to Exorcise Katrina.

I hope I can use art with my future clients. I don't know how accepted a practice it is but it's such a good window into the feelings of a child who otherwise may not be able to relay what they're feeling.

Here is an excerpt from the article, "So Karla Leopold, an art therapist from California, was intrigued when she noticed that for many of the young victims of Hurricane Katrina, the house had morphed into a triangle.

“At first we thought it was a fluke, but we saw it repeatedly in children of all ages,” said Ms. Leopold, who with a team of therapists has made nine visits to Renaissance Village here, the largest trailer park for Katrina evacuees, to work with children.

“Then we realized the internal schema of these children had changed. They weren’t drawing the house as a place of safety, they were drawing the roof.”

On Saturday, Lashawn Wells, 13, presented a drawing of three stick figures in a scribble of gray water: his mother, sister and brother, their arms up in the air. “Where are you?” Ms. Leopold asked.

“I don’t want to be in the picture,” Lashawn muttered."