The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down (Proverbs 14:1).

Mom says we can't build forts in the living room any more.  She says it'll make the cushions all crinkly and lumpy, like the old couch.  Honestly, to me, that doesn't sound like such a bad thing.  But she says that the new couch is way better than the old one.  I liked the old one just fine.  We could build forts and use it as a high-jump pit for our living room Olympics and have pillow fights and all that.  But now, Mom says we've got to be very, very careful.  Dad says that we've got to listen to Mom -- but I can tell that he kind of misses the old couch, too.  One time, I heard him tell Mom that he missed the old days, when we didn't have to wear surgical gloves and protective body suits to sit down and watch TV.

Honestly, though, I think I could be OK with the new couch and the "No More Forts in the Living Room" rule, if that was the only thing.  But it isn't.  It's the living room and the dining room and the hallway upstairs and the back yard and the bedrooms.

Mom acts like it's the best thing that ever happened to us -- this whole remodeling thing.  She tells all her friends that the house is so much nicer now, and that the house is worth so much more now, and that she doesn't know how she ever managed to get by with all the old stuff, before the construction guys did all their work and all the new furniture was brought in.  She says that she's so much happier now, but honestly I doubt it.  It seems to me like she's always grumpy now, and she yells at me and Mason and Madison when we play one of our games like the Bouncy Ball Game, where I was the world-champion with my sizzle-spin technique sneaking past Mason just about every time.  We used to have fun at home, but now it's just boring.  Mom says that we're a troop of monkeys, and she acts like we're trying to be mean to her when something gets broken.  Honestly, I don't know how much more of it I can take.

Mason and Madison totally agree with me, and I think Dad does, too.  He's supposed to have a better job now, and Mom's supposed to have a better house -- but somehow everything just seems to be worse than it used to be.  Mom and Dad just seem to be angry with each other.  And now it's like the best thing that ever happened to us is actually the worst thing that ever happened to us.  I hate this stupid house.