Water, Water, Everywhere...

Well, we did it.  We made it through that last two weeks of school.

Niko said yesterday, "Can you hear that mom?" What? He answered with a big

sigh of relief, "Nothing!  No homework, no mission to build,

no report to finish, no tests to study for.  Ahhhhhh....".  He asked me 

Friday night and again last night, "Do we have anything we HAVE to

do tmrw?"  He knew we didn't but I think he just wanted to hear me

say it out loud.  I grabbed him and wrapped my arms around him and

said, "Nope!  Nothin!  Oh, wait a minute--I forgot!  We have to make

time for....FUN!  We have to have lots and lots of FUN!" I'm glad he asked. It felt good to say it.    

I heard a new word recently and I like it, STAY-CATION.  It means (if you haven't heard) we are STAYing home for our vaCATION.  I love it!  Our family has traveled a lot this year and we are looking forward to just hanging out together in our home.  What a blessing.  PJ's till noon,

or maybe we'll stay in them all day!  That will be my gift to my family (since it's usually me dragging them here and there).  

See, we've also, had a bit of a "Comedy of Errors" in our lives lately.   One morning recently,

Ricardo called from the office at 7am to tell us the water pipe in the bathroom had burst and there was water everywhere.  No equipment was damaged but there was a solid week of squish, squish and cleanup.  At home, Niko's History book disappeared from class.  This is a child who is so orderly and responsible that something like this was devastating for him.  We looked everywhere, and then we looked everywhere again.  He was sure he put it on his teacher's

desk.  Three days later they found it in the classroom afterall.  :>  She sent me a very sweet email and I could feel Niko's relief as I read it.  Then, the piece de resistance happened late one night last week. Lauren had finished her math homework and brought it down for me to check. It was another late night in a long line of late nights, so I said, "I'll look it over and put it in your backpack for you when I'm done.  Go on to bed."  I did look it over.  But, her backpack was upstairs in her room so I just set it on the floor next to Niko's backpack here in the hall for the night.  I finished up some work and I was walking through the kitchen turning off lights, when suddenly I felt something cold and wet under my feet.  I looked down and found myself standing in a puddle of water. The washing machine had run over!  Water was everywhere, and right in the middle of it all, was Lauren mathbook--SUBMERGED.  So there I was, at midnight, ringing out the soaked pages.  I spent the next two hours blow drying the soggyness out of 200 pages, one page at a time.  Her book is now twice as thick as it was, but at least it's dry!  Last, but not least I assure you, was the day it rained cats and dogs.  Both my kids worked for hours building their California missions, and I was very impressed with their efforts.  Then, wednesday, the day they were due, we woke up to rain storming down.  I had to think of something quick --hefty bags!  We slid them in, and very carefully speed walked them into class.  Can you imagine how hard it is to balance an umbrella and a large mission with the wind blowing and the rain making the ground slippery? Well, in spite of being pummeled by heavy rain, then arriving to an empty(!) locked classroom, they both made it to class in one piece.  I love the rain but I must say, I've had enough of water everywhere to last a lifetime!