in pursuit of wild things

Littlest finished his second-grade language arts curriculum today. Tomorrow we will roll right into his third-grade book. I’m not so sure about the reader. It looks far too easy for him. The stories look so innocent too. For a kid that is reading Harry Potter these may be a bit dull. I guess it’ll do for now. I do have The Blue Fairy Book set aside for him if this reader proves to be too little. It will be interesting to see how he takes the non-Disney-fied version of the tales.

We were completely distracted by birds this morning. Little hummingbirds kept coming to our window to feed. We could hear the rapid hum of their wings from inside. Occasionally, one will sit a spell and drink. But not this morning. They were off rather quickly. One male ruby throat did take some time to hover at the window and watch us for a bit. Then he was off. I do not believe he cared so much about the intricacies of adjectives.

Earlier in the morning Sparkles was amused to be interrupted by a mocking bird. She was orally analyzing the characters from her literature story when the bird landed near our window and loudly gave his opinion on something. We are clueless as to the reason for his squawking. Sparkles was telling me about a hard decision the character had to make and she rambled on quite a bit. She liked the character and for some reason it was important to her that I liked the character too. I’ve been concerned over her for the past few days. She has been having a hard time getting to sleep and she is in great spirits.  A little too happy sometimes. I’m watching for patterns. Ups are always followed by downs and it is the pattern and how often the pattern spirals that worries me. She seems to be leveling out though. The highs and lows are not nearly so far apart.

We will have some changes coming into our schedule soon. Music lessons start back up this week. Adventure School and plumbing classes start back in September. We will also be joining a co-op for the fall. This is a small local Catholic co-op. They usually have a monthly field trip based on Kentucky history and I thought that would be fun for the kids. Littlest and Sparkles are our social butterflies and I think they need to be around people. Too bad they have a socially reluctant mother. I’m not exactly a hermit but I find being around people to be both mentally and physically tiring. But I am not so sure that it is always healthy to give in to my selective solitary nature. I may be lamenting the decision to join

this co-op in a month or two but for now I think it is good. This is also as full of a schedule I want to deal with along with work and house building.

Church was interesting this week. I felt so sick when I got home from work that I didn’t think we’d even go. My husband encouraged me to take a nap and afterward I felt well enough to venture out. Sparkles and I both ended up crying because Father Charles read The Giving Tree during his homily. It is one of my favorite books and I can never get through it without tearing up. I’m just glad that I was not the one up there reading to the parish. The meditation song was based on the Suscipe of Ignatius Loyola. I never really paid attention or even sang meditation songs in the past. Mostly because I went to communion and was happily swept up in the meaning of the worshipful act. I don’t try so hard to be so perfect anymore. Hmm, I’m not even sure if that is a proper way to go

about spiritual life or not. Not so sure that I can be persuaded to care so hard on what the meaning of “right way” should even be. Anyway, Sparkles and I enjoy the songs and usually comment to one another if we really liked a line or if the music was touching and beautiful. Maybe I was already emotional over The Giving Tree but the meditation song had me all weepy again. The first thing I did when we got home was put some tissues in my church bag.

My husband and the two older boys went to Louisville for the Street Rod Nationals. The temps were high that day but they still had a good time. Middle Boy managed to score two free tickets to get in and a nice mug. He just has a way with people. When he was a smaller boy, he got lots of attention from strangers. There were several times that when I got to the register at the grocery store the

cashier would hand me a chocolate bar that someone else had paid for to give to my “cute little boy”. He’s always had that special something that people are just drawn to. Today he told me that he was thinking about following his big brother into plumbing. At least I’ll have a better idea of how to plan for his high school courses.

* * * * * *

Last week we signed the contract to start building. We went over the plans with the contractor and made final decisions on what was to be done or removed. We also opted to do several of the projects ourselves.  Financing, insurance, and permits are our next step before any ground work begins. At some point I expect to freak out about all of this but at the moment my emotions are in hiding.

Last Friday a little fox startled me on my way in to work. I am pretty sure I startled him too. We

just started at each other for a few moments before I even thought about getting a picture. He was about half way across the parking lot before I had the camera ready. Just as I snapped a grainy picture of him sauntering away, Jacob came to unlock the door and warn me about the fox. I let him know that we were already acquainted with one another. Jacob told me stories about the fox as I walked to the timeclock. Foxes have been visiting with Foo during his lunch hour for the past few years. This was the first I had heard of the fox stories at work and several of the overnight crew told me about their encounters with Foo’s foxes.

I was distracted during mass this week. Sparkles stayed home and I missed her commentary on the songs and sermon. A little one was also very fussy the entire time. My neighbors came in late like they

always do. I am always completely startled out of my wits when they rush in and sit next to me. My stomach and heart took turns tying themselves in knots for the rest of the service. The priest warned us that his sermon was poorly written. He hadn’t had time to work on it properly since he had family in the hospital as well as several parishioners this week. I didn’t think much about his comments but as he got into the sermon, I understood his lament. It wasn’t the worst sermon though and likely much better than he believed it to be.

Next week I will meet with the co-op group for a planning session. It will be nice to see the faces of the ladies I have been emailing with. The kids were joking this morning and wondering how soon it will be before we are asked not to return. We do not have a good track record with other homeschoolers. I hope this turns out to be a different experience. But I can hardly focus on it now since tomorrow is my first therapy session. I have no focus today.

smoke bomb fun

Sparkles and Oldest

Boots and gold finch

puddle bathing birds

Foo’s fox

First Friday exposition

lunch at Cookout

Middle boy