Tiny stingers

Grace came in today with her Garfield book.  She acted out the comic strip that had her tickled.  Laying on the floor with her feet and belly pointing up as lazy Garfield.  Standing to the side as the onlookers, mistaking him for dead.  I liked that.  It was funny.

I sent Eli out to hang laundry and watched him stare out a while, then go catch a blue bellied lizard Rosie was stalking around a stump, and then eventually finish his job.

Sophia sculpted me some bee earrings for Mother's Day.   

And then we burned them black in the oven.  None of us can remember to take things OUT of the oven, ever.  So they looked like little houseflies then.  

And then like honeybees again when she painted them with acrylic paint.  

They even have tiny stingers.  

We're wrapping things up here.  The last 4-H meeting, the last math test, our last charter school day.

There are signs we're ready too.  Maybe just ready for summer, and less school work, less driving to many activities in one day.

Joey has shaved down his mountain man beard and big hair.  (I liked him sweet and soft and scruffy.) 

It's getting hotter, and being in this little house together can be trying sometimes.  Keeping kids on task, keeping order, keeping kids from fighting each other, keeping kids on time.  We clearly need to be outside more.

We've found homes for almost all the creatures.  The summer garden is underway.  The bees are looking good.  Joey and I want to put on swim suits too, go down to the river, and take some trips.

I think I'll miss the children when they go away to school all day.   But I'm remembering too that I like to be alone sometimes.  To make and learn things, and think.

I see the children becoming more capable and independent.  That is bittersweet.  I think we're about to enter a new phase of parenting, and I'm not certain I'm ready or willing.

Juliana