I thought it was time to clean house, and that included the blog. I don't normally notice details- just ask my husband who tried to give me directions and I didn't know there was a bank on the corner!- but after a while I like a change. As for cleaning house, I had the boys spring clean their room yesterday. This is always a hard thing for our relationship. I normally end up muttering about brain damaged children by the time it is over. I actually didn't have to help too much, and they finished the job in an acceptable manner. While we were cleaning, I noticed a shoe box under the bed. They are only to have a suitcase and their "treasure box" under their beds. I asked, "What's this?" #1 slowly answered, "A death box." "A what?" I asked, hoping I hadn't heard correctly. "A death box," he replied. "What's a death box?" "It's a Mexican tradition. When something or someone dies, you make a box for them." Now running through my mind is...what died, what have they put in this box, how badly will it smell, when did this happen, how did they get to be MY children? I opened the box, and inside was a drawing of the cat that died. #1 wrote a poem about it and drew a picture of it, so they could remember Winkie. There was also a little note to Kelly from when they thought we would have to get rid of her. I let them keep the box. ------- Geography co-op is always fun. This from a little girl reporting on a food from a desert in Yemen. "We made a yummy desert." She was supposed to say "We made a Yemen dessert." We also learned that the Himalayas rise about 1/2 an inch every year. That means the mountains have grown nearly two feet in my lifetime. That amazes me! ------- I told my husband that I noticed a condom coupon last week in the paper. I said I had never seen that before. He said- with a straight face!- "These are hard times." ------- It is August and we have had the air conditioner off for a week! The cooler weather has been a welcome change. I imagine the air will come back on this week though. ------- I go back to work tomorrow. The extra kids are back and getting ready to head off to a new school year. It seems so odd to me as we have been in school about 7 weeks! ------- #2 did not need pushing to join the swim club. He wants to join. I guess we will be dividing Saturdays soon when soccer starts and #1 does that. Maybe that is why hubby is not to teach this fall.