rain storm on the horizon

Rain fell most of the day yesterday, the entirety of the night and today. Cold rain. The kind that makes you feel chilly despite a warm and snugly house robe, thick socks and several cups of hot coffee. I should have skipped on the coffee though. We’ve had rain nearly every day this week. One gray day after another. The grass is really green. That nice bright spring green, vibrant and new. I wouldn’t mind some sunshine…sometime.

I had plans for today. Had. But sometimes a moment comes along that is jolting. Early this morning I was awakened from sleep by a noise. I didn’t know if it was an animal or a person screaming. The sound raised the hair on my arms and made me feel cold. I wasn’t sure what I had heard. Turns out it was my neighbor. Just after lunch time my neighbor drove his truck off a steep cliff…about three stories high or so. Maybe he wanted

neighborhood drama

to die. Maybe he just needs someone to notice his needs. I cannot judge his heart. I will not. He did survive though.

All of this drama brought back my brother’s suicide attempt. All those emotions returned to the surface. My thoughts were numb and jumbly. I cancelled school the rest of the day and the kids watched The Lego Movie. I knitted.

Some days there’s just no making sense of events.

My to-do list can wait until tomorrow…

Littlest and his art appreciation project

Up until today our week was mostly quiet. I worked in the mornings picking groceries and put in some full school days with the kids. Littlest worked on an art project this week in his language arts curriculum. I thought he would refuse to do the project but he surprised me. He did not want to use watercolors so I introduced him to oil pastels which he really liked using. We discussed the artwork he was to copy; talked over colors and shapes. Then he did his best to replicate the work. Of course it looks nothing like the work he copied but I can tell that he tried very hard to see the various shapes and color variations in the painting. He noticed details and that was the point of the exercise.

Poetry tea and breakfast was nice this week. The kids had everything set up when I got home from work. We had a nice time. Oldest graciously accepted teasing about the peach fuzz he calls a mustache between poems. We then spent time learning

Poetry and breakfast time

about Vermeer and Longfellow. We’ll be spending the next 36 weeks reading Longfellow’s poems and the next nine weeks studying Vermeer. This week we looked at The Girl with a Pearl Earring. We thought she seemed a bit sad and was very beautiful. Oldest snuggled one of his bunnies while we read poetry and Littlest ended up in my lap. He refused to let go of me for nearly an hour…kinda sweet even if my legs went numb.

While Oldest and I were away a couple of weekends ago my husband finished painting the schoolroom and added hardware to the drawers and cabinets. The room looks really nice. Eventually I plan to add a curtain to add some color to the room and soften the lines of the window. I forgot to post pictures of the finished room last week…silly me. The pictures are in the gallery below.

Sparkles and Shannon working on math together

On Monday Oldest begins his writing class with Melissa Wiley the author of the Prairie Thief. He has been looking forward to it for the past few months. The class is offered through BraveWriter and I am sure it will be as awesome as the Just So Stories class. Sparkles wants to take a creative writing class this summer with Karen O’Connor also through BraveWrite. Already our summer is starting to fill up.

We’re planning a trip out west for next fall to the Black Hills area of South Dakota. I discovered this week that Carhenge was on the way. Who doesn’t want to see Carhenge? We plan to drive all the way to California. I’ve been looking up parks and such between here and California…two weeks is just not enough time to see it all. I’m finding it hard to whittle down the sight-seeing. So many choices…

I’ve had quite the day. My kiddos are tucked into bed. Shannon an Oldest are having a great time in Dallas with the guys from The Hail Ming Power Hour Podcast. I’m going to have a glass of wine and watch a couple of episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation…maybe a couple of hours with Data and crew will keep the troubled dreams away for tonight.

 

school room
the windows need a curtain
rain storm on the horizon
Sparkles and Shannon working on math together
poetry and breakfast
Poetry and breakfast time
snuggles
Oldest and bunny
our cherry still lifes
Littlest and his art appreciation project
neighborhood drama