Sarah’s friend (and troopmate) is spending today with us. She is twelve years old and a good foot taller than Sarah. This girl is an only child. She expects someone else to carry her things, fix her food, clean her messes and basically serve her. Her parents carry her things to the scout meetings and her suitcases in our house when she visits. When she leaves her parents will gather her things and carry them out. For the next two weeks we will gather all of the things she left behind. This doen’t go over very big at our house where everyone has to pitch in or we can’t function. She and Sarah stayed up all night trashing the house. All of Sarah’s clothes are off their shelves, out of drawers and off their hangers. They are all over the floor and when I ask the girls to clean Sarah grumbles while her friend looks at me blankly and says “why”. When I pondered aloud about the condition of her room she calmly stated that her floor has huge piles of stiff that her mother comes in and cleans twice a year. I offered the girls several choices for lunch and after saying no to all the choices she announced “The only thing I want right now is tomato soup. Can you go get some?” Yet another reason why I appreciate having a large family. It’s better to have children who do without than children who have everything and are completely self centered. Doug has gone back to bed. The ants are everywhere I look.