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While our friends were in town last week, it rained like last year's crazy non-stop monsoon. This weekend, not so much. Last weekend, we went fishing at Ashurst lake, riding horses by Lake Mary, 4th of July parade, fireworks, Viet Springs hike, Art in the Park all in the rain. This weekend. Not so much. Paint and vacuum and laundry. So today seems a little bit about lost opportunity but found opportunity. We could have gone downtown to the climbing gym, on a hike, to the Hope Cottage fundraising event, to the arboretum. Instead, I stayed home and realized:

1. The blue wall is disgusting. It's flat blue paint that children touch, dogs sleep against, I tried to wash, leaving broad sweeping strokes of it's-worse-now-that-you-tried-to-scrub-away-the-kids'-greasy-fingerprints. So Erik fixed it. You can't tell from these pictures but the plain wall now looks perfect. Erik made each of us raise our hands and say, "We vow never to touch the walls and if our friends touch the walls to ask them nicely to please not touch the walls."

The children proceeded to touch all of the walls.

2. The Lotus Eaters chapter from the Odyssey and the effects of some mushrooms may have more in common than I thought. So might the song Frog Went a Courtin'. Now I have to go all the way through the MG novel and add more lotus. Or more mushrooms. Or more frogs.

3. It was so hot today (almost 90!) that on a walk in the forest today, Max said "he was going to die." We were twelve minutes from our house but we had no water. We worried about the squirrels. What do they drink? They do not have Spiderman cups filled with ice waiting for them at home. We decided they drink the white stuff at the bottom of a blade of grass. And wait for monsoons which will only come if their friends visit from out of town.