Shep created these different scales of Lego bricks, along with the appropriately sized Lego person. That math brain of his at age six—I just don’t know where it came from. Certainly not from me.
The other day he wandered by and mumbled, “Half of a million is 500,000.” And then he moseyed his way on into the kitchen.
Thus is the power of recessive genes.
We’ve been raising monarchs at school. Just today the first butterfly emerged, leaving us with three chrysalises.
If you look carefully at the chrysalis in the foreground, you can see the monarch wings below the slightly translucent surface.
Science is neat-o!
We’re talking about plants with the kids this week. When we pulled a class plant out of its pot, we discovered that it was probably time to treat all the plants to slightly larger living quarters.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/28275361
I’ve been tracking Irene on the news, thinking of all our friends on the east coast and hoping for the best. Although the hurricane seems to be less destructive than anticipated, we’ve been thinking of strangers who are sitting directly in the path. The inevitable gathering of scattered pieces when it is all over.
Today Tom was outside with Ellery, moving an old tarp. It’s gorgeous and sunny today, albeit a bit windy—our little piece of Irene, perhaps. And then something magical happened with that old tarp and the wind, and lumped together with all the unrest in the world, it reminded me to be thankful for all my good fortune all over again.
(I’m also wishing a very happy birthday to my amazing sister, Bonnie!)
Whew. That was quite a month.
We passed the state inspection, the paperwork ducks are in a row, all the furniture was moved in, decorating occurred, pencils were sharpened, and the first week has come and gone.
I’m officially a preschool teacher.
I’m tired, but it is good. I think it will take a while to get into the groove, both at school and at home. There’s a new rhythm to be established, and routines to be learned.
In the meantime, I’m miserably behind on blogging. I did take a few photos in the past 40 days, but it’s going to take me a while to catch up. Expect some backposting, but also moving forward. On all fronts.
It’s hot out there. We needed a diversion.
I think I fell a little in love with this turtle named Twister at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. He and I sat and watched each other for a while, and then I watched the vet give him a round of antibiotics, getting him on the road back to the ocean.
And then there were baby turtles. Hello, cute.
I know, after all those pretty Harry Potter pictures, this is a really bad one to throw at you. But it’s the only photo I took in the last two days.
The vacation, although filled with good company (hooray for R+D!) and good potential, has taken a bit of a downturn. The beach house is not quite living up to what we had in our imagination.
Now, I should say, we’ve been very lucky with online house rentals up until this point, so I suppose we were due for a dud. The house was nice enough, but it just had…issues.
The worst of which was the mosquito problem. We have also discovered that Ellery is QUITE allergic to Florida mosquitos. She got all these bites in the 30 seconds she stood by the hose area so we could wash the sand off of her. If you count carefully, you will find 14. There are countless more on other parts of her anatomy.
Speaking of sand, the beach is a bust. The waves are rough and the beach is full of trash. This was quite surprising, as, you know, the beach was a bit of a selling point and all.
The pool has been nice, but is full of sand. It could use some gentle love and care, and loses a few extra point on account of its proximity to the mosquitos.
There are other weird things, too. About half an hour after Tom and I began unpacking, we realized our bedroom had no door. The only trash can in the whole house was in the kitchen. We were missing important cooking items like saucepans and cookie sheets. And the blinds were broken, permanently shut, obscuring our view of the ocean.
Despite all this, we’ve had a great time swimming, playing, and laughing. Because really, with company that good, we could be just about anywhere.
