Sorry that we have been ignoring you. Actually, that’s not true. I’m not sorry. We have been ignoring you because we have been dallying in that sweet slice of exquisite torture known as taxes. And unless you run a small business (or two small businesses, as the case may be), you may not know just how unpleasant taxes can be for the self-employed. We would rather push unsharpened pencils through our eyeballs than do our taxes and yet, once a year, we are compelled by the laws of the land to buckle down, wrangle with numbers, and see what we owe. I’m talking about our 2012 taxes, mind you. We are compelled by the laws of sloth and disorganization never to do our taxes for the year one day sooner than we need to. And we need to get them done now because in a few short weeks we will be leaving for Alaska.

But for now, witness the pain of Robbi, who is really the one who suffers. She is the one who does the actual brainwork. My job is to read numbers off a piece of paper and place little check marks next to them when I’m done.

Notice the dirty dishes in the foreground. This has nothing to do with taxes. There are always dirty dishes in Robbi’s foreground.

While we have been doing taxes, our children have been running wild, unchaperoned and, frankly, concerned about our condition. Alden, who must have overheard Robbi lamenting to me about the difficulty of coming up with a Bobbledy Blog post topic the other day, labored over her drawing table and came up with this, which she presented to Robbi by saying, “Here Mama, you can Bobbledy Blog this.”

It is a family portrait. Almost. I am the tall green figure. According to Alden, I am “Talking on the phone.” Not loving my kids, not making a healthy meal. Talking on the phone.

Ouch.

As for Robbi? She’s not included. “Why isn’t Mama in the picture?” I ask.

“She’s working,” said Alden.

Double ouch. I tried to explain the scourge of taxes, but Alden was uninterested, or unconcerned. She was off to have fun, seemingly unphased by collateral damage of tax season.