Our Casserole of a Week

I like my blogs to have a central, unified theme. But, I am afraid this one is going to be a little more like a "left-overs casserole," with a little of this, and a little of that in it.

Emma is required to write a short journal entry each day for homeschool. Last week she wrote, "Today my sister and my brother made trama (trauma). I was mad." This pithy passage pretty much sums up our life lately. Laura and Tyler run around terrorizing the rest of us!

Here are some photos chronicling our activities of late:

On Friday we went to Descanso Gardens in La Canada to wrap-up Emma's plant unit in Science. Unfortunately, there were no peacocks to persecute the kids, but there were some feisty Koi, so we still managed to have a good time.


You can't really see them behind all the blossoms, but Emma and Laura are standing on the bridge. There were so many lovely flowers in bloom. It was a real treat!

On Friday night, we had a camp-out in the front room. We set up the tent and sleeping bags, then made tin foil dinners and smores to eat. Next, we constructed a fake fire out of blocks (which Tyler promptly kicked over) and told a couple of campfire stories. The best part was when Rance and I tried to recall camp songs from our youth, and sang them loudly and poorly for the kids. It's a good thing there were no real animals around because they probably would have attacked us!

For some reason, Tyler felt the need to dress up as Scooby Do for the occasion...

On Saturday, I went to get my hair trimmed. The hair stylist had cut Rance's hair on Friday and she remarked that we must have very hairy children. She did not get a generous tip.

The worst thing that happened this week was the April Fools joke that I played on myself. I had a job interview for my (part-time) dream job at the Children's Library in Glendale. I got a babysitter and ironed my suit for Wed. At about 3:45 I realized that I had written it on the wrong day on my calendar. AHHH! Amazingly I got a sitter for the kids, changed my clothes, got directions to the library, printed my resume, and drove the 15 minutes to Glendale, and was only 5 minutes late for my interview at 4. (Thanks again Claire!) It was like a Mr. Bean movie. I was driving down the freeway at 80 mph steering with my teeth, putting on panty hose over my head, and smearing make-up all over my face.

I was so flustered by the time I finally got there, I could barely form a complete sentence. It was like an out-of-body experience. Each time the interviewer asked me a question, I felt like my brain was floating up to the ceiling and looking down at my body, horrified by the lame-o answer I was giving. I couldn't remember the names of books I have read a thousand times. I am doubtful that I could have come up with my own name if they had asked me.

It happened almost a week ago, and by now I can manage a sorrowful chuckle about it. But I am still a little too sad to really laugh yet. Oh well. If that part of my week was a casserole, it would be a moldy beet and stinky cheese casserole! Sorry about the hodge-podge nature of this post. Sometimes, life just doesn't have a unified theme that ties neatly together at the end!