So I’ve been reading about etiquette, cultural facts and history of our soon-to-be-based-in country. And for fun, I’ve added in spy novels set there.

It’s comforting, reminding me of when I watched rerun upon rerun of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” when I was 15 because there was a chance we’d move to Minneapolis.

I’m feeling generally calmer. Our lives will still be completely different inside of 80 days, but I feel better. I think it’s because I actually told my spouse, “this is rather a big deal and it’s taking a lot of effort to remain calm.”

My first-grade daughter was reading a paragraph for her homework the other night. She missed a few of her “sight words,” words that she should know by sight, like symbols, because they occur so often in language.

I mentioned that we should practice sight words together, since we need to know them. She nodded and her lip began to quiver. I asked why she was sad.

“I don’t know all my sight words.”

I said, “Well, nobody knows them all right away. Everybody practices them. Nobody knows them all like magic.”

She said, “Okay. Yeah, we should practice.”

There’s something about sharing a struggle, admitting openly that something is not easy, that makes everything simpler. I wish I were better at remembering that…