"Vacation"

I'm off to the coast today with Dominic and 59 other fifth graders. Should be fun--and insightful.

We're visiting tide pools, Face Rock, the lighthouse, and a Jurassic-y slough.

I want to listen to the kids. Hear what they're saying to each other: the vocabulary they're using, what they're talking about. Research, always research.

And of course I want to walk along the beach with my boy.

Co-op Smackdown

When I drive this to the Co-op:







I get all kinds of smiles and waves and thumbs-up.

But after losing my key today, I had to wedge this into the same parking lot:







Which garnered all kinds of head-shaking and finger-pointing and scowls.

Leading me to this thought:

Don't mess with me, people. I can run right over you. Don't mess with me.

Where Would I Be Without My Writing Group?

Not sitting on the pavement outside a closed Starbucks, that's for sure.

When the coffee shop shut down in the middle of my new novel's conclusion, these girls took it outside.

While Christy and Marcia crammed together on a cold metal bench, Julie sat frozen in a parking space. Under the light of the moon, they went over and over and over my pages, offering incredible insight.

I'm telling you, that's devotion.

Emergency!

This morning, the first thing I did was wipe up spilled grape juice. No problem. Then I made French toast and eggs for breakfast and peanut butter sandwich lunches, and reminded everyone a thousand times to brush their teeth and get on their shoes and take their homework. Again, no problem. We walked to school, and I slapped a conclusion on my new novel, and after school, I made the littles a vegetarian feast, then picked up Dominic from taiko, then slathered sunscreen all over Daney and got her ready for softball, and made pizza from scratch. No problem, no problem, no problem. I told Reesie to play outside every time he got too loud in the house, which was about every eight to ten minutes during a two hour period. But, no problem. There was some Nerf gun drama. and, if you can believe it, still no problem! I cleaned up the kitchen and cut Reesie's hair and put him in the shower and picked up the wet clothes off the floor, and did two loads of laundry, and I was starting to get just the slightest bit peeved, when Daney called from the living room that the keyboard my friend had lent her was missing the cord that Reesie had taken off.

PROBLEM!!!!

I had suddenly hit the maximum allowance of letting things go.

I yelled, then, and Reesie cried, and Daney fled, and Dominic told me I'm always mad, all the time.

When The Husband called from the fire station and asked me how my day was and I told him all this, even after running seven calls, he said, "Geez, babe. Sounds rough. I'm sorry."

At least there's someone out there who understands.

Evolution

While Daney wrapped up an optional, week-long science fair project on whether the cat preferred wet or dry food,
the boys shot each other with Nerf darts.

Studying Kids Studying Bugs

For writing research, I took the kids to a couple different places within the same creek. We wanted to see if we could find the same species, and the same general amounts of these species, within the different spots.

We found less crayfish, but huge amounts of hardy water scorpions, in the more polluted part of the creek.

The kids had a great time, studying bugs while I studied them.

Even The Husband got into it:

Check out this crawfish fight (or maybe mating)! The one on top is pinning the other with its claws! And that's a horsetail snake whipping around over both of them.

A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Although, I definitely prefer this method of slogging my feet through water:

A yummy bubble bath. Mmmm...