Seven: Not Very Quick

A sun spider -- also
commonly known as
a "scorpion spider."

1.  Woke Up This Morning,
bleary-eyed, and sat down at the computer to try and rouse my brain.  The children were up and milling about vaguely.  Coffee was brewing.  Theresa was fixing herself some cereal; Gabe, completely dressed right down to his backpack since 6 a.m., was urging on William, who had brought his school clothes downstairs to change near the warmth of a heat vent.  In the middle of scanning FB,  I barely registered Theresa saying, nonchalantly, "Oh, look.  There's a sun spider climbing up the curtain."

 And then, in an instant, the quiet morning broke loose.

(And, yes, children, even though I tell you not to do it: here, for effect, we jump into present-tense...)

William, half dressed,  screeches and springs in one bound clear over the dining room table (or so it appeared); he scurries to the kitchen to hide behind me.  Gabe says, "Woah!" and runs for a book to smash the spider -- and hands it to Theresa.

Theresa, the powerful; Theresa, the bold and daring; Theresa, the calm, cool, and collected.

 No sissy maiden, our Theresa takes the last bite of her Cheerios, drinks the milk out of the bottom of the bowl, saunters over to the curtain, flicks the spider on to the floor, drops the book on it and steps on the book.  "Take care of that, Gabe, will you?" she says, then goes and puts her bowl in the sink.  The end.

All I gotta say is:  Look out, boys.  Don't trifle with this one.

2. Colorado Weather:


Cold enough to snow one day, warm enough to do this the next...

Which is a very good thing -- because the 220 for our dryer isn't working...

3.  Care Package Day
Here at Davis Family Homeschool Central:

Serving as Home Ec class with a twist of  Corporal Work of Mercy, the girls are making a batch of cookies (or two or ten) to send off to Kevvy in Denver and the Omaha contingent this afternoon.  The grand plan is for them to arrive in time for Shrove Tuesday.  On the list:  Sour Cream Cookies, Cocounut Sugar Cookies, Chocolate No Bake Cookies, and Banana Bread.  Since we got too late a start to get anything to Paul in Afghanistan, we'll do the cooking for his "Sunday-in-Lent Care Package" ASAP.  And a batch for Nicole and Gavin should be heading out Monday morning!

4. Oh, Yeah, and Did I Forget to Mention...

Anna recently joined Catherine in our home school, leaving just William (Kindergarten), Gabe (1st grade), and Theresa (8th grade) at our parish school down the road.

 As time has gone on, I think we've all felt more and more like we really are homeschoolers at heart, and though our little Catholic school is absolutely wonderful and our teaching Sisters the cream of the crop and dear to our hearts, Anna, as well as Cathy, just thrive better at home.  Next year, after Theresa graduates (our school is a k-8), we'll likely bring everyone back home.

 More on our philosophy and the reality of home schooling vs. conventional schooling some time, I promise.  It being a subject that can be very ticklish, I've started that post several times and blanched at the responsibility of it...  But, I really will tackle it sometime -- before next school year anyway.  I promise!

5.  So, I Asked Anna...
"What else is interesting that I should write about?"  And she said, "Well, Gigi (the kitty) got stuck in a big tree yesterday."

 But seriously -- what's new about that, Anna?  Every time I turn around something's going on with the cats and the trees at this house.  It's all the drama.

***

"Anna, for heaven's sake, how did you get that big scratch on your chin?"

"I was climbing up the bark of the tree and tried to pull up onto a branch and it didn't work."

"What, were you following one of the cats?"
"Not very well, obviously."

 ***

"Noey (the dog) is limping. What happened?"

"She was chasing a cat up a tree."

"And?"

"She didn't get very far."

***
But there's Gigi yesterday, "stuck" in the tree.  Stuck, that is, until the girls come out with a piece of lunch meat to lure her down.  I'm thinking that she wasn't really very stuck.  And it occurs to me that there are a lot of times when I may think I'm really "stuck" on a problem, when a good piece of lunch meat -- or maybe chocolate -- might lure me right out of it.  It's very often the incentive that determines how hard we want to work to get down out of the tree, isn't it?

6.  "Jerry Rigging"
 Originates loosely from "jury rigging" -- On sailing ships, a "jury rig" (from Old French, "ajurie," meaning "help" or" relief") is a replacement mast and yards improvised in case the original mast is lost or damaged.  Over time, it has come to mean any kind of makeshift repair, using only the tools and materials on hand.

This old house we've moved into has required a vast amount of jerry rigging skills. First of all, there are really only two closets in the house.  The only one that is in any way "normal" happens to be in the teensy-weensy downstairs bedroom that we've turned into Dan's office; the other is about the size of a coffin and is in Michelle's room upstairs.  All other closet space has had to be rigged.  But,  though it's unconventional and might illicit good-natured sneers from some (like one of my sons who calls it "ghetto"...),  we've actually ended up with more closet space than we had in the other big, new/er, conventional house we just moved out of.  So, see?  It's all good.

Not that they define us, but our jerry rigged closets are part-and-parcel of the whole package.  And we're at peace with that.  If you can really wade past all the kids, and statues of the saints, and homeschool books, and sheet music, and cookie dough to actually get back to where you can see our funky closets, and you haven't already figured out we're unconventional.....  Well....  The view from the crow's nest might be better, but the mast is jerry-rigged, so you'd better be careful climbing up.

7.  A Picture Thought
What the girls have accomplished while I've been sitting over here at the computer:

Diet?  What diet?

 Lots of Friday Quick Takes (as usual -- most quicker than mine),

being hosted this week by Betty Beguiles, right here!