An Important Lesson

Let this be a lesson for every kindergartner out there:

You can have a water bottle. And, you can have 5 friends. But, you can't have your 5 friends drink from your water bottle.

True story. Sarah was so proud to tell me late last week that she shared her water bottle with 5 thirsty friends on the playground at school.

Sarah is going on 58 hours of temps running between 101 and 103.5 degrees - except for the random blessed relief of the Motrin/Tylenol combo. (Except it wasn't blessed between the hours of 2am and 4am last night when the relief came and Sarah kept waking me up to help her make paper airplanes. I wish I was kidding. I wish the Motrin hadn't worked between those hours. That sounded mean, didn't it?)

For the most part, this has been the scene at our house:


And, of course, it is Murphy's Law....or something.....that this stuff only happens when Daddy is out of town. Do I see some heads nodding in agreement?

Kindergarten

On August 23rd Sarah went off to kindergarten. She was quite proud to be a "big" girl, even though she was dwarfed by her Hello Kitty backpack and the 5th graders in the hall. Kindergartners are oblivious to these things. She had a great week, only breaking down one night at bedtime. In a crying, wailing fit she screamed, "I'm never going back to school because I hate art!" That is a lie, because she loves to make art. To diffuse the situation, I said to her, "Then don't do art. Just sit there while all your friends do their art." She gave me a strange look, let out a final scream, then immediately fell asleep. (According to her teacher, she did art the next day.)

I asked the teacher to monitor her speech and see if she thought Sarah needed to be re-checked this year. After a few days Mrs. S said that Sarah would not qualify speech. Mrs. S also went on to say she has to shush Sarah in class because she talks a lot. This was incredible news, because up until her 4th birthday, many people didn't even know Sarah could talk. I do feel bad, though, because I was once a teacher with too many Chatty Cathys in class. Lord help me if all my kids' report cards say, "Talks too much in class." It would be a cruel irony.

With Sarah at school, I am left to spend my days with my house keeper....


And, a hunk of burning love.

It's hard. But, somehow I'll survive.

Just call me Okra

(Please note that Sarah styled her own hair for this picture.)

This summer some of Sarah's favorite things grew in our garden. Basil for making the pesto she loves; cherry and grape tomatoes for refueling her body while playing in the backyard; okra for mama to fry up or grill for lunch, dinner, or even breakfast (yuck!); and a lone watermelon that grew on an obnoxiously large vine that pretty much took over our whole garden.

For Sarah, the pesto was good - used on grilled mozzarella cheese sandwiches or pasta. The tomatoes where a fun snack that she enjoyed grabbing here and there. But, the okra and the watermelon! Oh my!

The lone watermelon was the recipient of such loving, tender care. Daily, in the "cool" of the morning, Sarah would pull up her child-sized lawn chair to the edge of the garden and sing it songs, coaxing it to grow bigger. She mostly sang Doe, a Deer, a Female Deer. Or, as Sarah sings, Doe, a Deer, My Female Deer. (Anyone reminded of a certain Frog and Toad story?) Knowing Sarah, she quite possibly also shared the love of Jesus with that precious watermelon.

The okra.... the okra was the cause of several tantrums this summer. They would occur when I would dare to prepare some other vegetable for dinner. Or, when Michael and I dared to eat our share of the prepared okra, leaving Sarah with only her portion and the portion Andrew refused to eat. One night at dinner Sarah announced that we should all call her Okra. So, that has been her new name for the past several weeks. Not that I can really remember to call her that. Though you would think I would since she only corrects me a hundred times a day. Just to get her back, I almost put down Okra as the "goes by" name on her kindergarten information sheet.

So, the watermelon came off the vine yesterday. I almost planned a ceremony. Instead, I snapped a few pictures and then we ate it.

Now that the weather is "cooling" down (we are finally out of the 100's during the day and into the 60's at night), the okra is slowing down. It is the only living thing that I know of that actually thrives on excessive heat warning days. I'm glad about this, because I don't think I can eat any more okra.....after I fry up just a little bit more for lunch today.