random this random that

It rained last night. The power has been going out in our house every evening right at 6 pm which is the worst possible time. It means that showers are difficult with the kids, eating is done in darkness and bedtimes are moved up. It has also been nice to talk with Kimi because we don't have electricity. So good and bad. This morning there was glorious sun with ribbons of mist hanging in the valleys. The termites are out in numbers after the huge rainstorm and kids are collecting them once their wings drop off to fry at home and eat. We drove to work today in a swirl of forgotten feathery wings.

Kimi has a new pet. 2 actually. One is a praying mantis who has fondly been dubbed my girl. He speaks to her every morning and recently brought her to school where she ate an astounding 14 grasshoppers in a row. She appears to finally be sated for the time being with her pregnant looking belly huge and bloated. She is fascinating to watch although I couldn't quite stomach her eating the little frog we found. Cockroaches I'm all for however. The second one is a caterpillar that is fat and toxic green. It's still at home munching it's way through leaves and cabbage and we are hoping that it will cocoon and turn into a butterfly and not a moth.

I keep teaching and have posted some pictures of recent projects. One class was on the five senses. I had no idea the kids would so enjoy cutting out gargantuan noses, eyes, ears, mouths, hands. The other one is our garden of greatness. Each child got to make a flower with four things on the petal that they like about themselves and one that the class likes about them. It lent for some good discussion and self esteem building. I encouraged them to look at their flower and garden when they are having a particularly "no feeling" kind of day.

Ayumi is coming home with her dates written 5-11-13 which makes me smile. She is just learning so much. If only my brain were as absorbent as hers. Jonah is talking up a storm at the top of his lungs. So loudly in fact that his neck vein seems to be in a perpetual state of popping out.

It's a good season.