Sleep Happens
Curriculum, Art
UPDATE: M told me that I knew the interesting facts not because of the zoo visit but because she’d checked out a book that we read about zoo animals. And N knew all the facts, too–I should’ve had her answer the questions.
They’d pulled up in a nice red sedan and asked about schooling materials; they were doing an “internship” through a “college exchange program” and wanted to talk to the person in charge of schooling.
“We’re often referred to the mom; is she here?”
“No,” I said, “but I can speak for her.”
“Can we have a few minutes to talk about a curriculum, to get the kids ready for next year?”
“Well, we aren’t going to buy anything, and right now I’m in the middle of cleaning up a big pee mess in the bathroom, so now isn’t a good time.”
“Maybe I can interest you with a little known fact for the day: Do you know what makes flamingos pink?”
“It’s the food they eat,” I said. “Beta Carotenes, or something.”
“Oh, you knew that! How about this one: What is a rhino’s horn made of?”
“Hair.”
“Oh, you knew that one, too!”
“Yeah. We went to the zoo last week.”
“Do you know why bats hang upside down?”
“To sleep.”
“Well, yes, but it’s because they’re legs are too brittle. They just have claws.”
“Is that right? Thanks for stopping by.”
At this point N, who was playing out in the yard with some friends, walked over, in time to hear them ask me if there are any other families with children around who might be interested in talking with them.
“Not that I know of.”
They thanked me and got back in their car, and N whispered to me, “You didn’t tell them about our cousins down the road.”
“I know,” I whispered back. “I don’t want them to know about them.”
She grinned.
Just for fun, here are some of N’s recent drawings:
Blessing
For I’s baby blessing service at church yesterday I put some verses from Ecclesiastes together and read them:
But if there is a time to weep, there is also a time to laugh. If there is a time to mourn, there is also a time to dance.
This is a time of happiness and joy, this springtime of new life.
I, as you came from your mother’s womb, you shall go again, naked as you came, and you shall take nothing for your toil that you may carry away in your hand. So it will be good and fitting that you eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which you toil under the sun the few days of your life that God has given you, for this is your lot.
If generations come and generations go, and the earth remains forever;
If the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises;
If the wind blows to the south and turns to the north, and round and round it goes, ever returning on its course;
If all streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full, and to the place the streams come from, there they return again;Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.
May the light of your life be sweet, for it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
The Kids
First Laugh
Skunked
Being the semi-good dog owner that I am, I ventured out into the cold last night to tie the mangy cur for the night. I whistled and called, and a moment or two later heard her bark and then run the perimeter of our yard then across the driveway to where I stood on just off our porch.
“Good dog,” I said as I ran my fingers all through her fur and gave her a few deep scratches. “Hmmm. Have you been near a skunk?”
I grabbed her collar and we speed walked to the dog house; with every step the skunkiness of the situation increased and I finally realized that she had, indeed, been more than near a skunk.
Back inside, I nearly panicked: my hands were so very skunked I wasn’t sure what to do. Vinegar? No dice. Lemon juice? Now I smelled like a Pine Sol’d skunk.
The Internet? Worth a shot, and MythBusters came through with a hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap blend. Not bad, although I definitely am not free just yet: When I was brushing N’s teeth tonight, she said, “You stink”–and she wasn’t talking about my breath, either.
Fortunately no one at school seemed to notice today, and the pizza and granola I made tonight tasted completely skunk free.
Whew.
Enough Filming! I Want More Butter and Jelly for My Soaked Pieces of Bread!
Habit Forming
Baby Jesus Trio
Winkers
