Around the House for Another Gloomy Afternoon

Last night we saw Mary Poppins at Proctors–loved it. A full review is coming with this week’s KidsOutAndAbout newsletter.

As you might expect, everyone’s sleepy this afternoon, and the non-stop weather gloom-fest isn’t helping. Both girls arrived home with math tests that weren’t bad, but weren’t 100%, either.  Each girl wanted to review with me immediately but was also mortified lest her sister see any mistakes she’d made, which made going over corrections challenging. It was a lot of drama, but I consoled myself that, really, this is excellent drama to have. They care about their grades, they want to be good at math. Right? It may be somewhat manufactured drama, but better manufactured math drama then other drama.

In fact, the other day one of M’s friends was over, and I overheard her saying, “Who do you like? I’ll tell you if you tell me.” They were in the downstairs playroom, their voices carrying up into the kitchen as I prepared lunch. I was thinking, in approximately  equal parts:

  1. Oh-my-gosh, are we here? Already?
  2. Neither of them should say a word. That sort of gossip is way too juicy. Not to mention, there’s a second-grader in the room, too. No. There’s no way they’ll say anything.
  3. Just in case, I’d better stay here by the doorway and work very, very quietly.

No luck. Later, at lunch, her friend asked, “M, what’s something that you don’t like about me?” Yowza. We have definitely veered into scary middle school manufactured drama territory. I froze, this time at my computer, waiting for the answer. “Oh, my dear friend,” M burst out. “There is nothing that I don’t like about you!”

Dang, that girl is smart. And not just math-smart.

After homework, J indulged in a craft activity:

Entirely inside the box, plunging the knife out.

Meanwhile, M enjoyed her brand new instrument: the trombone!

That’s right: she’s cast the cello aside. I’m not terribly optimistic, but right now we’re in the honeymoon period, so she blew on that thing for a full 25 minutes this afternoon. After I took a few pictures, J begged for the camera, so I’m leaving you with one of her “artistic” shots.

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