Most of what I have been doing since we got back is house work.  Very exciting.  Or something.  I left the house in a heightened state of chaos compared to normal and I am slowly repairing the damage.  In the process I am discovering that we still have too much stuff.  I am also trying to spend more time directly interacting with the kids in what feels like potentially “educational” sorts of ways.  I’m encouraging Shanna to help more and talking to her about what I am doing, why, and the finer points of how.  This is most interesting out in the garden. She is starting to talk about water permeability and that just makes my heart soar.  It’s a good thing that I have a number of friends with formal science education backgrounds so they can fill in the gaps I’m leaving.  I’m starting to think I need to acquire child-level plant biology books.  I would love suggestions of favorites if you have any.  We’ve been working from the gardening books I read (I’m still on Gardening When It Counts) and I have a few others that talk more about the specifics of care.  It has seemed silly to talk about seasons when we came home to a very chilly July.

I’m also daydreaming.  My birthday party is 7 weeks away.  That’s not actually that long considering that Sarah is moving in during the middle of that period and my garage is no where close to ready for the party.  Partially I’m waiting on the inspection on the water heater.  Partially I’m trying to decide what I want to do about painting.  I know what I want to do very intensely.  I really really really know what I want to do… but it would be a very difficult paint job and I’m not sure that it is within the realm of reasonable for the next 7 weeks.