A Love Letter to Pumpkins

Pumpkins are quite possibly the most perfect real food item (I love chocolate but don't think of it as real food). They are very healthy, as pumpkin is an excellent source of beta-carotene, antioxidants and fiber. They are quite versatile - pumpkin can serve as an appetizer, salad, soup, main course and dessert ingredient and tastes delicious whether in a sweet or salty dish.


They are very appealing as decorative items - either brightening the entryway or as a centerpiece. They play a very important role in the most wonderful time of the year - it feels officially like autumn when the pumpkins come to market. And what would Halloween be without Jack-o-lanterns? One of my day-after-Thanksgiving rituals is to cut my decorative pumpkins in half and place them out in the woods for the wild critters and birds to feast on. Within the next month or so, they will be completely consumed, so they are also a good resource for wild life.


Today, like all Thanksgivings, I am not craving the turkey or fixin's. I start salivating for pumpkin pie. I plan my entire caloric intake on T-Day around the pie. I skimp on the potatoes and completely ignore the stuffing and rolls so as to leave ample room for the pie. I could care less about having leftovers of anything but the pumpkin pie - if there is a chance there won't be any, I have been known to bake an extra pie to enjoy over the days after T-day.



Speaking of pumpkin pie, I love it so much, it is my official birthday cake every year. But I don't just love pumpkin pie. I am an equal-opportunity pumpkin dessert lover. I make pumpkin goodies year round - pumpkin cake, pumpkin bars, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins. I just downloaded some additional recipes that I am going to try over the next few months.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Pumpkin Mousse

Now, grab your barf bags and try to imagine these yummy desserts made with turkey instead. Not the same, is it?

As I was surfing the 'nets for all things pumpkin, it occurred to me that poor pumpkins are treated like second class citizens, especially at Thanksgiving. Turkeys are given superstar status, while the poor pumpkins are relegated to the sidelines.

Superstardom has clearly gone to this diva's head, er, neck

For instance, how many pumpkins get the chance to get this up close and personal with the head Turkey every year? (Although on second thought,,, maybe that's a plus for the pumpkins).


Don't get me wrong. I like turkey just fine. Especially with mashed potatoes and gravy. But I don't find myself looking forward to Thanksgiving because of the turkey. To me, Thanksgiving means pumpkin-love!

All of this has gotten me to thinking....when you compare all of the benefits of pumpkins against the merits of turkey, pumpkins will win almost every time. Pumpkins are much cuter than turkeys:

Pumpkins come in a wider variety of shapes, color and size:

Whereas turkeys come in only 2 basic modes - light and dark:



Pumpkins are eaten by carnivores and vegetarians alike, which cannot be said for turkeys. Preparing pumpkins to be cooked is not nearly so messy as prepping a turkey (although you don't get leftover bones to make a delicious turkey gumbo the next day). And finally, knitters everywhere prefer pumpkins over turkeys, 3 to 1.


Don't believe me? Ravelry has 6 pages of knitted pumpkin patterns as compared to a paltry 2 for turkeys. So while it is clear that pumpkins are superior to turkeys in countless ways, I have to ask: Why do we have a national holiday for turkeys and not pumpkins? I would like to start a petition to make pumpkins the official mascot of Thanksgiving. Who's with me on this?

Happy Pumpkin Day from Criquette's House of Pumpkins to yours!

Music Mix Swap, Part I

I signed up for a swap I found on Ravelry where we make music mixes and send out 3 packages. I am loving it! I'm probably the most ancient person in the swap, by far and I think that both my spoiler and spoilee are the 2 youngest. They both seem like really interesting people and surprisingly, I seem to have a few things in common with both of them. My spoiler does an incredible amount of knitting for charity and raises chickens. Most people don't know that I have my bachelor's in Agriculture. I REALLY wanted to raise chickens. Maybe one day... My spoilee has bunches of pets and is involved in animal rescue. They both have eclectic taste in music, much like I do. And they knit. So yeah, it's fun.

I'm still waiting to hear whether my spoilee is happy with her first package, or if I'm totally out of touch with what older teens like. But I received my first package today from my very talented spoiler, Sarah, who did a fantastic job! It's like she knows me. I loved everything!

Chloe and Abbie knew the package had treats in it before it was opened. Abbie was leaping frantically and salivating (which is why she looks so goofy in this picture). They must be psychic.


Look at all of these goodies! Starting with the upper left, you will see "People Crackers" for the pooches. I had to open them immediately to get those 2 from driving me crazy. She also sent along some toys for the kitties, some Ghiridelli (one of my favorite chocolates)peanut butter squares, some melt-in-your-mouth crispy chocolate cookies (one pack was demolished immediately), a beautiful and very pettable ball of Elizabeth Lavold alpaca/wool/silk yarn in one of my favorite winter colors, a perfect-sized little box (for stitchmarkers and small accessories) with a great pair of handmade earrings. And of course, an intriguing music mix which I can't wait to hear.

This is probably the best notecard anyone has ever sent me

These are definitely my new favorites!!! I wear black just about every day and I just love the style of these earrings!

What about the rest of the goodies? I'll let the pictures do the talking. After eating many people treats, Chloe went off to Mr. C's office for a little nap.

There were some fun little mice with jingle bells on their tails. Bitsy, who has always ignored stuffed toys up until now, was the first to run over and claim one for herself.

But she left one for Criquette, who showed Bitsy the best way to kill a toy mouse.

And then there was the best toy of all - wind up shrimp sushi! Abbie was all over it and had to be scolded to "leave it." I am convinced she would have eaten it if given a chance.


Criquette wasn't sure what to make of this crazy orange thing that was spinning around on the floor. She spent a few minutes checking it out.


Once she was certain the sushi was safe, she got closer....


and snatched it up and ran off with it before I could get another picture! We laughed until it hurt. Priceless. However, once I located the sushi (under the bed), I reclaimed it, as it is the perfect addition to my little collection of crazy windup toys.

So as you can see, I have been blessed by the Swap gods and been given the best spoiler ever! Thanks, Sarah!

We're heading out now for a couple of days. I have a workshop to attend, but we'll be back before Thanksgiving. All of you have a great week and take care!

Dogs on Thursday Say: Koyotes Is Our Cuzzins

The woods behind our house serve as a wildlife highway. We regularly see or hear coyotes as they travel along the edge of suburbia, trying their best to survive in a world of expanding lawns and minivans. Like all of us, they are just doing their best to survive, day by day. I have no grudges against coyotes. In fact, I think they're quite beautiful. As long as they're not eating the local dogs and cats.

This is Charlie. He is not my coyote, but I wish he was.



He is an amazing animal companion and he has his very own blog.

He also has his own yarn (his mom must be a knitter).


Take a few minutes to go and visit. His human mom takes some of the most haunting and beautiful photographs of the west. Her book is coming out in early December. I've already signed up for my copy.

So what does this have to do with dogs? Well, coyotes are very closely related to our domestic dogs - they are both members of the Canine species (with different genuses). When Chloe and Abbie spot coyotes, or hear them howling, they react very differently than when they spot bunnies or squirrels or deer. The hair on the back of their necks and flanks will raise up and their barking is deep and serious, as in "guarding the house" (as opposed to the hyper and shrill excited "quick mom, let's go hunting! Let's go catch those things!"). And yet, their tails are sort of wagging at the same time. It's like they recognize the coyotes as distant cousins, but they don't want them to come and visit.

Although for Charlie, they might make an exception.

Dogs on Thursday: Back From the Big Car Ride

We got back from the lake on Monday. Criquette was in quite a snit and would have absolutely nothing to do with us, the little cow. Bitsy, the grump, is the one I'd expect to be sulking, but she came running out of her hiding place to greet us and actually let us pet her for a bit.


Chloe and Abbie, who spent much of their time at the lake napping, immediately ran to their beds and slept most of the evening. They were totally worn out from so much relaxing. I wasn't mentally ready to make the transition from the lake back to real life, so was in a grumpy mood myself.


I think the weather may be playing a role in this. I am being charitable by calling the weather "dreary". The entire time we were at the lake. On the verge of drizzling, on the verge of being cold, but overall, just yucky. This is how the sky looked on our way to the lake:

And it just got worse. We stayed in the cabin in front of the wood stove most of the time we were there, except to take the dogs for walks twice a day.

The cabin is as cozy as it looks.

Abbie and Chloe don't care if it's cold and yucky, as long as there are plenty of smelly things to investigate.

Abbie is checking out a small flock of ducks that had just landed in the water.


Abbie got too exhuberant on one of the walks and hurt her leg while bouncing around on a steep hill. She wouldn't put any weight on it for a couple of days and naturally got lots of sympathy from mom and dad, who even let her share the nest by the stove. Two days later, she jumped out of bed onto both legs and hasn't had a single problem since. I think she's smarter than she lets on, at least when it comes to scoring comfy places to nap!

I drove about 40 minutes over to the largest town, to visit The Yarn Basket. I shopped and hung out with some local knitters for most of the afternoon. The local gossip was quite juicy and vastly entertaining, like the stories about the very unattractive knitting guy who wears kilts with nothing under them and brings his 2 girlfriends with him to one of the knitting groups. I think I'll spare you the other bits on the basis of TMI. I guess there's more opportunity to get into all sorts of trouble living in a small town without much distraction.

This time I went in to the yarn shop with a mission so didn't end up buying much in the way of "oooh's" and "ahhhh's". I got an idea for a secret project and became very fixated on it during my getaway. I decided it should be felted, so I needed to purchase some wool that I knew would felt nicely and knew I couldn't go wrong with good old Lamb's Pride. I decided to also try the Galway wool, because I like the colors. It's unpleasantly scratchy which I suspect should make it felt well too. I also got a couple of skeins for my Ravelry Music Mix swap pal, a ball of Berrocco Comfort in a beautiful woodsy green colorway that will be a couple of men's chemo caps, a couple of skeins of rainbow cotton, and a couple of balls of red and green variegated cotton in a brand I am unfamiliar with.

The newest members of the stash

I liked the Christmas colorway, but what seems obviously dark green turns to black when knitted up. I don't really like it, but I'm not hating it, so I'll finish up the dishcloth and throw the remaining ball into the stash.

As far as the rest of the trip... doesn't it just figure that on the very last day of the trip, out comes the sun. Grrrrrrrr! But we had a great walk before packing up to go...

and all of our legs were working just fine

Goodbye, little cabin, we'll see you in the spring!

Our trip ended with this beautiful sunset as we pulled into our neighborhood. Abbie and Chloe voted for us to do this again next year!

Dogs on Thursday (On Wednesday)

Two very lucky Dogs on Thursday are going to go for a Big Ride in the car today. They get to go on a little vacation with their Mom and Dad to the lake. They can watch the fish, bark at the squirrels, ducks, and deer, and sleep up on their own beds and smell all kinds of new and exciting smells. And maybe their Mom will get a chance to bake them some homemade canine cookies that they can snack on while lounging in front of the wood stove at night.


They have been such very good dogs through all of the months of fostering, they deserve a long weekend of pampering. Chloe is doing very well. She's on a different dog food now and is like a new dog - happy and energetic and healthy!


Abbie's been really excited to go on walks with her again, now that Chloe's not poking so far behind anymore.



I feel like I'm still not over the bug that I had last week, or maybe it's a new one, who knows. But it won't stop me from spending my birthday at the lake, surrounded by most of my loved ones (the kitties declined the invite to join us), with nothing to do but knit, sleep, drink wine, eat good food, and shop at one of my favorite LYS' away from home. Enjoy your weekend too!

One Vote is Like a Drop in a Bucket....

...but if it wasn't for each single drop, the bucket would never be filled. So especially if you think your one vote won't make a difference, get out there and help fill the bucket already! (And don't forget to bring your knitting - the early voting lines were really long).

Boo!

Wishing you chills, thrills and lots of chocolate!

Dogs On Thursday: They Work Hard For the Money

Employed dogs behave much better than unemployed dogs. It's a well-known fact in the dog training world. Whether they're herding, guarding, hunting, carrying things, warming your lap or just running around making everyone happy, dogs need to work to have good self-esteem and to keep evil Mr. Boredom away. You know him, the guy that makes them bark like maniacs, use the bathroom all over the floor, and chew up your new shoes.

So of course, the dogs who live with the Criquette pack are kept very busy. They take Mr. C for long walks every morning, herd the cats, stay on the alert for squirrels, bunnies and any other furry creatures who dare to brave into their territory. They are ferocious guard dogs (and they mean business, too) yet are always happy to be outside chasing the little kids on the block and tolerating lots of hugs and kisses. And let's not forget the critical job of helping their mommy keep the floors clean.

Today, however, they were prepared to take on another job. You see, that yucky bug I caught over the weekend hit me again and I had to come home early yesterday afternoon. I made a cozy nest on the sofa, where I could recover with the help of knitting and TV -

Nurse Chloe and Nurse Abbie, keeping the bed warm for the patient

Dr. Criquette, making sure the knitting stays healthy

I had to stay home today, to0. My medical team is taking good care of me. Remember the party that I missed on Saturday? My friends were so sweet - they sent me a big container of some of the most fantastic soup and a big slab of gooey, chocolately brownies. Tragically, I've felt too sick to eat the brownies, and I gave them all to Mr. C, since he made a special trip to the store to get me 7-up and rainbow sherbert. But the soup has been wonderful. I'll be sure to get the recipe, but I'm pretty good at duplicating recipes from taste and sight, so here's my guess -

I think she started with a chicken broth base. There was shredded chicken, barley, lentils, white shoepeg corn, celery, fresh spinach, and little shreds of parmagiano cheese. She seasons her soups with some garlic and Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning (I know this because I'm her supplier). I had the last of it for lunch, and I'm already thinking I have to make some this weekend. For my friends out there who don't eat things with faces, this could be easily converted to a meatless soup by leaving out the chicken (and cheese) and using veggie broth instead. If I can talk my friend into sharing her recipe, I'll post it here.

As far as my chicken pot pie soup recipe, Lynn wanted to know how long to boil the chicken tenders. Ummmmm... I'm not sure. I just boil them until I think they're done. I would say it was between 10 - 15 minutes. I'd take one out at 10 minutes (while the rest is still boiling), and cut it open. If it has any pink on the inside, throw it back in and cook it another 5 minutes or so. They get white and sort of curled when they're done. Be sure to pop on over to see Lynn and scroll down past the adorable pix of her Girly Girl to Monday's post and look at her dinner - Lynn if you lived closer, I'd be knocking on your door for leftovers (if you even had any!).

I've been up long enough, as my head is starting to ache again. I'm going to go crawl into my nest, which my nurses have kept nice and warm for me.

It's Pity Party Time!

I was feeling very sorry for myself all day. Instead of going to the most fabulous Halloween party ever, I knew I'd be sitting home all alone tonight. Without fail, I get some kind of bug every year about this time. I've been fighting off something all week, but when I woke up this morning, I knew it had caught up with me. It's one of those sneezy, headachy, ear-achy, fevery kind of things that make a person want to lay around and stare mindlessly at the tv.

Mr. C didn't want to go at first, but I insisted because the host is one of his best friends from high school and it's such a fun mix of people and the food is great and because I kind of want to be left alone to be ill in peace.

I knew I wanted to eat something comforting, like chicken soup or chicken pot pie. I didn't have enough broth for the soup and a pot pie would be ridiculously non-healthy, so I decided to combine the two. I pulled some chicken out of the freezer and rooted through the pantry and what I came up with was so quick and easy and so delicious, I had to share it with you.

Criquette's Crustless Chicken Pot Pie Soup

2 pounds (thawed) chicken tenders (you could substitute boneless chicken thighs, or strip the meat off a rotisserie chicken for an even faster meal)
2 cups water
32 oz low sodium chicken broth
2 cans cream of chicken soup
16 oz frozen peas and carrots
20 oz frozen roasted potatoes
1 TBLS poultry seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder

Put the broth, water and chicken tenders into a large pot and bring to a gentle boil. Continue to boil the tenders, until cooked through. Remove the tenders and let cool. Meanwhile, add the remaining ingredients to the broth and bring back to a gentle boil. Dice the cooled tenders and return to the pot. Lower the heat and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. I didn't measure, but this looks like it made enough to serve 8.

I didn't take pictures, but it looks as good as it tastes. I wouldn't hesitate to serve this to guests - I would add a green salad, biscuits or cornbread, and for dessert, pumpkin pie. If you try this, let me know how it turns out. Bon appetite!

I feel much, much better after eating my comfort soup. I had some pumpkin bread for dessert, washed down with jasmine green tea. I've slipped into my soft pj's and turned on my electric blankie. And now I'm going to take my little pity party to bed with the cats and dogs, where I'll snuggle in with some knitting and the TV remote. Hope you're all having a lovely evening, too.

Dogs On Thursday: An Uneventful Week (At Last)

We are happy to report that this past week has been uneventful and boring, with hardly anything worth blogging about, and lots of time to do it. And it's about time!

I had my last appointments of the day cancel twice this week, meaning I got home around 7pm, which is usually unheard of, twice this week. And while I was off being a little less busy at work, the critters of the Criquette household were catching up on their R&R:

Bitsy has decided on a career change. Instead of Resident Grump, she took a position as Home Security WatchCat. She had a good time growling and snarling at the moving leaves. She has been taking her shift every morning for the past couple of weeks, same time, same spot.

Criquette, on the other hand, has whiled away her week, basking in the golden autumn sunshine and savoring her victory after finally winning the turf battle against the evil foster kittens.

Abbie just continued with her usual daily routine - wake up, eat, walk, poop, lounge about and think of rabbits, nap on the porch, nap on the stairs, look out the window for rabbits, nap in the patch of sunshine, nap in her bed, wake up, eat, walk, poop, nap in the family room, nap in Chloe's bed, look out the window one last time for rabbits, beg for a bedtime snack, go to sleep.

"When will these dumb humans figure out that we canines hold the keys to true happiness?"

After getting home from the hospital, Chloe spent two days just catching up on her beauty sleep and enjoying being back at home. There's not much better than sleeping in your own bed.

She's feeling great and back to her usual routine. For details, please see Abbie's previous section.

An Unfortunate Series of Events, or I Need a Bushel of 4-Leaf Clovers Right About Now

I can't believe I've gone a whole month without blogging or visiting blogs. I've really missed everyone and I'm sorry for being such a bad blogger.

Does anyone else out there ever feel like their life is either too full or too empty but hardly ever in between? I know I do a lot of this to myself, by taking on yet another patient when my schedule is already completely full, or taking in fosters when no one else has room, or trying to keep up with maintaining my gardens when there's not even enough time to get basic house cleaning done, but without these things, I would have too much time on my hands. And then I would get bored, which leaves my brain wide open for anxious and depressing thoughts to sneak in and take over my life and then I don't want to do anything or go anywhere or talk to anyone I don't have to talk to and that's a recipe for crazy-making and I don't want to go there.

So I stay busy. Since that last blog in September, so many things have happened. The good: As I reported in my previous blog, Kona and Scout/Cordi have found themselves wonderful homes. With the alien critters all gone, the resident critters have all settled back into their normal routines. I had started getting on top of the cleaning again and managed to get my fall decorating done. Last Sunday, a glorious autumn blue-sky day was spent in the garden, doing some planting and getting the beds ready for winter. I've started some knitting projects and finished some knitting projects. I've been consistently busy at work and most of my patients are doing well. Life was good.

And then, this week, my luck changed. I don't know why - broken mirror? No, but I did lose my purse mirror last week. Black cat? Just Kona, who went to his new home 3 weeks ago. Spilled salt? No, but I've been spilling other things all over the place - a full cup of coffee all over my receipts and expense reports, a bottle of 500 aspirins all over the kitchen floor while trying to medicate a splitting headache, and a big glass of sticky pomegranate juice all over the island on my rush out the door to work. Walk under a ladder? No, but does falling down the stairs in the parking lot at work 2 nights ago because the parking lot lights have not been working and it's totally dark and I have wrenched something in my shoulder and hip- does that count? All this in the past 5 days.

But those were really NBD's - no big deals (well, except my shoulder may be hurt more than I want to admit) - just a string of daily hassles that are annoying and stressful. But we had a bad scare early Monday morning. Chloe has had several bouts of stomach and bathroom problems on and off over the past 2 months. Our vet has given her some medicine, we've had her on a gentler diet and most days are fine. But on Monday, she had a really bad problem and lets just say it involved a lot of scary bodily fluids and a very dazed and sick puppy. Our vet got her in first thing that morning. She was diagnosed with HGE and had to be hospitalized. Fortunately, we caught it at the beginning of the cycle, got her to the vet specialty clinic (translation=really, really expensive vet services). She had to spend 2 1/2 days there, on an IV drip, and Mr. C brought her home Wednesday afternoon. My poor, sweet girl lost a lot of weight and was acting like she had been punished and didn't know why. I just prayed that somehow she could understand, at some level, that she was being helped.

Mr. C's business partner is a veterinary pathologist. When he heard about Chloe's diagnosis, he was surprised that she survived. Apparently, this has a very high mortality rate. We caught it just in time. She's feeling much better now and is gradually being weaned back onto her regular diet. Her potty is normal again, she's getting her energy back and has been trotting around the house, barking at squirrels and people passing by out front. The problem with this illness is that it could be caused by a variety of things in the environment or even stress, but not controllable things like food, so it's not something you can take measures to prevent. It may or may not happen again. All we can do is carry on as usual, with lots of prayers that it doesn't come back. And lots of prayers that this week of "Friday the 13ths every day" is over and our luck turns once more.

In Which Criquette Comes Out of Hiding, With an Update

I'm baaaa-aack - after my long, involuntary sabbatical from blogland. And what a month it's been! (What a week it's been, but I'll save that for another post.)

First off, I want to thank Nichole for the wonderful collar I won in one of her contests. When she said the collar was a "small", I thought of Scout, who is small. Apparently she needs "toy-size". But I will keep this for next spring's batch of foster puppies - surely we'll have one who fits into this luxurious collar!

Gives new meaning to the word "choker"

Last week, Scout (now re-named Cordelia, Cordi for short), was adopted by a very talented local dog trainer and her family. Cordi's new mom knows all about how to help tiny dogs whose tiny bladders can't "hold it" when they get overexcited, so wasn't concerned about Scout's little "problem". Cordi also has a new dad, a big human sister and brother, and 2 Boston terrier brothers who love having a baby sister! Since her mom's training studio is in their home, Cordi gets to meet all kinds of new dogs and their people, and goes on long walks along a beautiful walking trail every day. We're getting together soon - can't wait to see my little rat again!

One lucky dog

Kona also hit the adoption jackpot 3 weeks ago, after 3 long weekends of being down at the shelter with me, searching for the right match. He was adopted by a great family - the parents saw him on PetFinder and knew he was the kitty for them. They brought their 10-year old daughter in to meet him and it was a mutual love-fest! He also has 2 Shi-tzuh brothers, who happen to love cats as much as he loves dogs. Hooray! We got an update from them and apparently the dogs have decided that Kona is a rockstar (which he is) and they defer to his every whim. He's always in someone's lap, demanding pets and love. And so far, he's been well-behaved, except for one incident involving an unlucky houseplant (keep your fingers crossed). I still really miss him, but Criquette is back to being sweet again and even Bitsy has been in a good mood.

They grow up too fast!

I have managed to make time almost every night to do a little knitting in order to maintain some measure of sanity. Current projects include a scarf for my niece, who is away at a college in the Blue Ridge mountains and needs a soft, toasty alpaca scarf to keep her warm as she scurries across campus. I am also making myself a pretty scarf in autumn colors. There's a another chemo Hurricane Hat in the works. And I couldn't resist casting on for a couple of dishcloths to carry around with me. Finally, I have a pattern I am creating for a knitted pumpkin that is turning out great so far - can't wait to show it off, although by the time I finish, it will be an Easter pumpkin!

And of course, since this is my absolute favorite time of year, and the weather has been outstanding, I've been sneaking in gardening whenever possible. I have such a bumper crop of hydrangeas this year (off of only 5 medium-sized shrubs), that I had containers of drying hydrangeas covering every available surface in my kitchen and dining room. I have already given away 3 big bunches of dried hydrangeas as hostess and birthday gifts, and still have a ton left. I called a local florist and they are interested in buying the rest. It won't make me rich, but it should be enough to cover the cost of a few skeins of yarn, a couple of new knitting books and a few new Addi's!

This is only about half of what I've dried so far

I am also trying to come up with some durable and inexpensive garden markers for the plants that go dormant in the winter. I got my supplies today and if it works, will share my idea in a future post. I refuse to pay an exorbitant fee for cheap plastic or metal markers that don't make it through the winter.

Not that my life has been all fun and games and knitting, of course. I'm in my super-busy time at work, and should continue with my 50+ hours/week until the end of school. My practice now consists almost exclusively of kids and teens being treated for some type of anxiety or stress-related disorders and I turn away several each week. I could write a month's worth of blogs on why I think there are so very, very many kids who are so stressed-out that they need professional help. I love what I do, but I wouldn't be sorry if our society started changing in ways that made kids (and adults) have less pressure and fewer things to worry about and fear - in fact, if it put me out of business, I'd be the happiest person on the prairie.