This afternoon, I asked Berit to read one of those Magic Treehouse books to Griffin though Merit was still here and she got mad and burst into tears. Naturally, I over-reacted in kind, as I am wont to do, and told her that I do a lot of things for her that I don't necessarily want to do at the time, and then I grabbed the pinhole camera that I've been building with her for her science fair project and the photographic paper I bought for her today and thrust it at her telling her that she could do her own damn project.

God, I want to be the Buddha so badly , but when it comes to parenting I am so freaking far away from that it's depressing to me.

Of course, I had to make amends, not only to Berit but also to my amazingly empathic daughter Rowan, who was in tears over me being so mean.