(Our bounty)
Sunday was a flurry of activity. I guess because we knew Kimona and Sam would be leaving in the morning with Tom everyone felt an urgency to do something. The kids surprised me and started academic-type projects for competition. They divided once again into the age old boys vs. girls. The girls theme was “Mother Nature” while the boys went with “The Future is Wild”.(Irish helps the girls)
(Sam paints one of their future creatures)
(Henry and Sam create their world)
They set to work finding boxes and began creating dioramas with short stories. I was to be the judge. They worked and worked painting, cutting, gluing and writing.
Afterward there were blueberries and vegetables to pick for dinner from the garden and projects to finish. We needed to get the fence up for the sheep, goats and Miracle. With our child labor force it went pretty quickly. Tom and I wired the fence together while our flock of magpies talked loudly and wildly.
(Sam wacks the weeds so we can put up the wire)
At one point in the evening I had to flick the lights on and off to get their attention. Sam remarked, “ "Hey they only do that in school.”
Henry responded, “The world is my mother’s schoolroom.”
In stark contrast the ride into Bellingham the next morning when silence covered the van like a blanket. I’m not sure if they got all their talking done or they were asleep with their eyes open, but no one said a word. We dropped off Henry for his first day of football camp, dropped the girls off at home and then continued on to Seattle with Luther, Bruno, my charges and Tom.
The way home was even more deadly quiet. Luther and Bruno slept the entire way and I arrived back in Bellingham just in time to pick up Henry and hear new dreams of Notre Dame and the NFL. (Henry - alone again)
