summer of fun

it took me nearly 24 hours, but i finally cooled off. i ditched my morning prayer routine some time last week and i'm wondering what will happen. sometimes i have these petty thoughts of God, that if i'm not doing something to please Him. something to show i'm serious, He'll get me. yes, the vindictive God syndrome. but He's never been that way with me. why doubt i him? so many questions. no answers. or none that satisfy.

my girl has had a blast here in ny. made little friends all over town. the gs troop is getting ready to start up again. yesterday, she and her little friend were cycling on the street, and when they went by, i noticed they had both pinned red capes to their backs.

i had this, let them create, kind of attitude for the longest time. pretty much going for anything in the name of creation. unfettered imagination is a good thing.

until they got to my spice cabinet. having just moved, we don't seem to have a lot of stuff. but my girl and a little friend found enough stuff to make some evil hot concoction. they were going to feed it to the girl's dad, but he was wise enough to take nearly passing out from sniffing it as a sign not to eat it. i told him, i have no idea what they put in that stuff. but it involved at least a half bottle of pepper and chili powder.

it all started after my girl produced a chemistry set i made her when she was five. there are no chemistry sets for five year olds that i could find, so i made one up with measuring cups, petrie dishes (concave bumble bee coasters), cups, measuring spoons, scale, food coloring, vinegar, baking soda, sugar, corn starch. stuff she could combine and make a real mess of. they sold bubble gum chemistry sets, but she was so young, i never wanted her to get confused. i didn't want it to become an eating event. so i kept it stricktly nonconsumable, though if she ingested these ingredients, it would likely do no harm. just make her run for a glass of water.

this has been all well and goood. four years now, i've been refilling these components. well, mix homeschooler with public schoolers and stuff happens. she's met all public schoolers, except for one or two outings.

the back porch needed to be hosed down after word got out that there was a spice and chemistry free for all going on. i was retrieving my silver spoons from the back porch and they used a whole roll of paper towels for this "clean up" which wasn't very clean.

but they had fun.

i guess that is all that matters. i kept hearing the door open and close that day, but i didn't check. they were looting my spice cabinet again. nothing edible produced. just mucky, yeuckyness on the back porch, which has since been washed away by the abundant rains.

our apt. is so small, a queen size air mattress is taking up the whole living room. the girls are still passed out from their attempted all nighter. in an apartment this small, we all had to attempt an all nighter. they made it to 11:30. there is popcorn all over the floor, foot by the foot wrappers everywhere, stuffed animals, books.

they are really good kids. i'm blessed. so i have to clean a litte, no worries. this is the first summer my girl has played the entire time with actual children. she is an only child and i've never known what to do about that. how to "fix" it, as it were. we've never lived on a block where she could meander down the street and play.

school is getting ready to start soon, and we'll be going to the bronx zoo for a first day field trip (kind of cool being a homeschooler, eh?), and the ny fire museum on sept. 12. i'm hoping to get to the guggenheim, or the botanical gardens. i'd love to try the natural history museum, but the stuffed beasts give me the willies. i should really go. so i don't pass my willies on to my child. but some part of me would rather my husband take her. even skeletons make me feel all funny inside. i don't care to look at them.

because my imagination is so vivid, i can flesh out those bones, no problem. then in my mind's eye, i'm running away from a pursuing beast of some sort. at the dallas natrual history museum, they have a huge turtle. massive. bigger than me, hanging up on the ceiling. and a slight light effect that makes the room look watery. it really creeps me out. i feel like i'm in the ocean.

once i turned the corner and a big polar bear, standing on all fours making a growly face was there. scared the bejesus out of me. why don't they put them in friendly poses? don't like that. haven't liked the stuffed animals since. blegh.