Joy

We just celebrated the two month anniversary of our arrival in St. Louis this past Wednesday by clogging and overflowing the hall toilet. It was very exciting--I would love to hear the children's take on what I looked and sounded like. We are now resolved to eat all our vegetable portions and consult with a parent before questionable flushings. While I had plenty of cleaning up to do and lamented our own culpability in the big mess, (in my panic to lift the ball float, I failed to recognize that our tank does not have a ball float, and pulled up the flapper letting even more water into, or rather out of, the bowl), I did experience for the first time the joy of home non-ownership! The maintenance department came along with a "Ninja" to vacuum up the water that we hadn't soaked up with every towel in the linen closet, and also to check behind the molding and under the cupboards for water and dampness. They drilled holes in the sheetrock behind the molding and checked the subfloor for excessive moisture. Then a professional water damage control company was called in to spray anti-microbial chemicals and thoroughly dry the kitchen and bathroom. They are very serious about preventing the growth of mold and mildew. We were left with four extremely powerful and strategically placed fans, and an industrial dehumidifier that was the size of a large dorm fridge. The house sounded like an airport runway for 48 hours. We all slept very soundly except for Charlie who was in the middle of midterms.

In other news, we also celebrated having added all subjects to our homeschool day by going to the zoo and by signing Paul up for piano lessons.

Now that I'm ready to give up on running, Elise has the racing bug, and is always ready to take me out for a training run!

Charlie has outpatient ear surgery this Friday morning.

Madeleine observed that this year we have met people named Summer, Autumn, and Winter. All this in a year with no spring! (we had autumn in Peru and now in Missouri, although the temperature was 84 yesterday)

Struck by the image of Darth Vader hurtling through space after the destruction of the Death Star, Thomas was able to articulate with dread and awe, "Darth Vader got away. He's still out there..."

Artists' Comments

Naaman asked for the artists to comment on their work. Here it is.


Elise: I actually have 8 horses in this picture, but unfortunately it is all in pencil, so you can't see very much!!!!!!!!!!!! I originally only meant to have 1 horse in the picture ,but I just kept on adding more andmoreandmoreandmoreandmoreandmoreandmoooooore so I ended up with 8 horses.(my favorite horses are the 2 in the upper~righthand corner)

Paul: The reason that I wanted to draw this map was because I was writing a story called (temporarily) THE MAGIC SWORD. The map belongs to the story. The story is very long and maybe you can read it some time.

Thomas: (The only comment we've been able to coax out of Thomas about his art is "When am I going to get my rhinoceros back?")

Maddie: Where is MY picture!???!! It is based on a print I made back in Norfolk, when we had an art teacher. I'm sorry to say that the rubber block that the print was carved on broke in half. But at least I have a drawing now.
Sometimes I'm asked who the people in my drawings are. Actually, I almost never draw people I know, really just because it never looks like who I had in mind, and it's easier for me to draw people I've never seen.