Seven Quick Takes

1.  As I write this (Thursday afternoon) it is 102 degrees, but, my weather app tells me, it feels like 123 degrees. That would be a bit over 50 degrees in Celsius, but I prefer the screaming mania of three digits of crazy hot.  In reality, it feels like 827 degrees Celsius, anyway.

What's that?  No one could survive 827 C?  Yes!  That's exactly how it feels.

2.  Speaking of summer, it's winter in Australia.  Are you surprised?  I actually was.  Which also surprised me.

 I've been reading two lovely and talented Australian bloggers, Sue Elvis at Stories of an Unschooling Family and Vicky at Creating with Wisdom. By "lovely" I mean that their blogs radiate love, and I always feel better for having read them. 

But it really is winter where they are! Right now!   I know that, of course.  I've taught about seasons and I understand why this is so.

And yet... my gut sense of the world (123 degrees!) thinks this is ridiculous. Vicky put up a snowy background on her blog this month, and, at first, I thought it was a joke!  And then Sue wrote about going for hot cocoa... 

If I were either of those two bloggers, I'm sure I'd draw something meaningful from this, but I'm  too busy trying to refrain from stupid comments like, "But then, is it Christmas for you?"


3. Which reminds me that a visitor recently noticed that I have the 6' arm of Grendel hanging in my kitchen.

Yes, yes, I know that's crazy: we never eat in the kitchen, it should be hanging in the dining room, a much better analogy for Hart Hall.

At any rate, I had forgotten it was there, which really should not be possible.

4. Not to give the impression that we are weird home schoolers (which is not to be confused with Weird Unsocialized Home Schoolers), sometimes we just look like this.

I'm not sure, but I think that mysterious stranger is Choclo.


5. And speaking of Choclo, he recently discovered the bag of giant rhinestones I had bought a year ago (on a whim when I was trying to hit the free shipping minimum) and asked to play with them. I thought that was fine.

Not fine, fantastic!  Choclo and Oob made pictures on the floor with the gems  for hours!  The picture is one of Oob's creations - it's about Jesus, he told me. We clean up by sweeping them (with a broom) and then pouring them back in the bag.

Then Leena and Zorg made up a lengthy and complicated game involving trading the gems at different values.  I have no idea how it works, but all the older Zoomlians play it for hours (whenever the younger Zoomlians aren't playing with them).

Best Too-Hot-to-Go-Outside toy ever!  A second bag should arrive today.

6.  Mxyl and Zorg are at Boy Scout camp this week, and the Emperor joined them for the latter half.

To keep things going on the home front, we have been doing Dinosaur Week (many, many posts coming up) and Jane Austen Week (more posts coming) at the same time.

It's been... kinda indescribable.  The biggest surprise has been that Choclo liked Sense and Sensibility that much.

7.  In pursuit of Dinosaur Week, and in an attempt to find a dinosaur themed song that does not assert that dinosaurs flew and swam (by definition a dinosaur is a land animal), I stumbled across this (entirely non educational) song from my youth, and now I can't get it out of my head.



Oh, that's much better, right?  My kids think it's hilarious and spend the whole song pointing out the anachronisms, "But, Mom!  There weren't any dinosaurs 40 million years ago!"

What can I say, it was the 80s...

More fun with Jen!!