The Crowes' Nest

Yesterday Bruce and Deb left for London/then Ireland and the kids and I are here for the week. "A whole week with no PARENTS!!!" Bronwyn chortled gleefully, to which I said, "Sounds like a Disney movie," and Deb replied, "Scary!"

Nothing Disney about this actually. Chores, chores, chores. Scrub the floors with toothbrushes! I want those tiles clean enough to eat from! (Not that they don't already...)

No nothing like that, either. They have just enough chores to keep them out of trouble, and just enough free time to have some fun. We will make ant farms with all the ants scurrying about the house (as Rodge said, "We already live in an ant farm.") And we'll make homeade ice cream (or try again anyway.) Tomorrow night will be pizza-movie-night.

The kids like to sleep in the basement, since there is no air con. in the house and it's much cooler there, so this morning, because it was completely dark, the five older ones didn't get up till 8:30 or so. Even Noah, who was upstairs like I was, slept till 8. Surprise! I wonder if luck will hold out for another 12 hour night...

I love these kids and I'm so glad to be with them. (Ask me about this again next Tuesday) Parties are fun, beaches are good, conferences are nice now and then, and camps and classrooms are great too, but what I love best (closely seconded by car and plane trips) is a happy home. The family unit is a most fascinating creation.

Here's what the little birdies have been up to:

Noah is still potty training, so basically he spends his waking hours in a rather messy cycle of drinking and peeing, sometimes on the toilet and sometimes not. He does a good job of alerting us when he needs to go, but unfortunately he has some tummy trouble at the moment, so there have been as many as five or six underwear changes in an hour...

The lifesaver for me is that Broderic and Bronwyn are getting paid (by their ingenius parents) for every time they take Noah potty, which cuts my job in half, and has them jumping at every chance and practically begging Noah to go.

Clark has reconciled himself to having me in the house. A few days ago he told me, in some little mood that took him, "I don't want you in this house, Cass!" He got in trouble with his dad, and since then he has been really angelic. Every few hours he reminds me of his repentance and his changed life. "I really like you in this house, Cass. I do." And more often, "I very love you, Cass, I very love you."

Tucker only has six more lessons left in "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," which I've been going through with him. He's getting so fast and so good, and he claims he wants to finish before his parents get home. I reminded him that this will take extra work, and his eyes got big and he nodded his eagerly and assured me that he still wanted to do it.

Last night Brent came in with an interesting contraption, composed of wood pieces nailed together and a stick with about ten rubber bands wrapped around it. It's an airplane, and he's trying to get it to wind up and fly over the house. Someday that kid will invent something great.

Bronny has been a right-hand helper. She keeps the other kids in line :)

Rodge and I are reading "The Giver" by Lois Lowry in the afternoons. I read it for the first time a month or so ago after finding it in the Crowes' book shelf. I loved it and I think he is enjoying it too.

I wanted to write something more "inspired," but Noah is doing interesting things in his pants about every ten minutes, so things aren't exactly flowing. I mean, for him they are, but...