Friday bullets, April 6, 2018

Is it April 6 or more like February 65? With two inches of snow predicted for Monday, I'm not entirely sure. (And people in Arizona, I just don't want to hear about your 90 degree weather right now, OK?)

• The ducklings are now big enough that I can leave the wire top off their wading pool most of the time. I feel badly having it down, because they are so tall that they can't stretch their necks very much. They are also so big now that none of the larger predators in the house has given them a second glance. I think they are at least as big, if not bigger, than Midnight these days. I do kind of expect to see a random duck wandering about the house soon, though.
• Olive is a positive menace with her cone. We will all be relieved when it can come off. A. did a trial of taking it off, but she wouldn't leave the incision alone, so back on it went.
• I was reminded this week of the beauty of not trying to teach something too early. We had sort of done telling time with analog clocks previous to this, but earlier this week, L. came to me and wanted to know how to tell time. I got out our little teaching clock and explained how it worked. She practiced telling the time a few times, and that was it. She got it. She can tell time. Of course, everyone else wanted in on it, so now the four youngest can all tell time. It took about 20 minutes out of my day. So much better in my book than trying to teach it two years ago before they were ready or cared, where it would have been a total of many (painful) hours.
• Small people have also been busily building some of the things we have been reading about. Yesterday we read several books about the Great Wall in China. K. became totally consumed with building his own version. J. is also reading the first Lord of the Rings to the younger people. This afternoon, L. has spent a very long time creating every character in the book out of Lego, as well as different places they have been to.
• Nearly all of my seeds that I have started have come up. It's a new record for me. Now, to keep them all alive until it is (finally) warm enough to plant them outside. That's the real trick.
• We have now moved to #6 on the husky breeders waiting list. It is looking more and more likely that we will have a husky puppy joining us this summer.
• There is nothing so motivating as getting a notice that a book you are reading cannot be renewed because someone else put a hold on it. That gives me three days to finish a couple hundred pages of a book I'm enjoying about nutrition and brain health. The Invisible Library is going to have to wait for a few days.
• Some days it sounds like a music practice building around here. P. has her electric guitar that she plays, many people take turns playing the piano, D. is practicing cello, and TM is trying to teach himself violin. At least once D. and TM were figuring out how to play the same piece together. There could be a lot worse sources of noise.
• D. is very excited because he leaves tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning to fly to Seattle to visit the H-S Family. This will be his first plane trip, so he is also a little nervous. He'll be there about a week before coming home.

Teatime calls... Have a good weekend.