by the skin of my teeth

what a stupid phrase, or is it?
.

the source of 'by the skin of one's teeth' is, apparently*, the Book of Job, in which Job said, "my bone cleaveth to my skin, and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth"; it is thought that he was saying that the margin of an escape was as narrow as the 'skin' of a tooth is shallow - the equivalent of a 'hair's breadth' perhaps - and that Job meant that he'd had a very hard time of it, escaping; the phrase being used ever since to mean a very narrow or tricky or difficult escape. . .

(*apparently being the operative word, I'm no biblical scholar)

this month I've had one
.
I've never really liked January. . . following on directly after December, that long and expensive month, the stresses (purely self imposed, you understand) of the season, new year with its associated new leaves and resolutions, January equally long, full of the biggest utility bills of the year; the house has damp problems, plumbing problems, electrical problems; things have broken and need replacing (and I'm not talking the trivial stuff items); furniture has been delivered and installed (Mini-Teen now has a wardrobe and some shelves and there is now space for a desk); a computer broke, my phone stopped working, I lost a huge filling in a molar; I distracted myself with the endless decorating that needs doing and only stopped when I ran out of paint. . .
.

however, we all pulled thru. . .
. . .just

and/but - HEY! - we have a house, we have electrics and plumbing, furniture and paint, computers and phones - and I do have all my own teeth. . .

I'm looking forward to February hopefully the plumbers and electricians and handymen will actually turn up; then there's the prioritising of the list of what needs to be accomplished into the four-square grid of essential/urgent (did you ever do that during Time Management courses? it's a good way of sorting out what you really need to get done first) and trying to get some of that sorted. . .

. . .and then of course, there's the fun stuff - etching (photos have been taken!)

perhaps I'll be smiling again soon,
whatever the state of the skin of my teeth. . .

. . .or blowing bubbles, even