how do turtles like meatloaf?

Well.

He seemed to love it.

Jay laughed when he saw him scrambling up on his rock pile to snap up the pieces.

You go, Bernie.

This reptile has been living in the kitchen (eeew! I know!) for about 15 years now, and yet he still acts like he doesn't know us.

I approach the tank, he scrambles for cover.

Oh, whatever, you dumb idiot. Knock it off.

He's no dog, ingratiating wagging of the tail and such.

I have never done one single thing to him.

Except I place food on the rocks--like fried chicken, and tilapia, and shrimp. And tonight? Meatloaf.

If he's dead tomorrow, we'll know why.

And yet, somehow I doubt this. He may very well outlive all of us.

love, Val

father's day

It's a bike ride with Grandpa and alot of rowdy bike riders.

Here he comes with t.c. cheering.


This is me and my dad in his garage. I didn't see him today, only talked on the phone. Some animal called a fisher cat got into the chicken coop and killed most of the chickens. He and mom are pretty bummed.

It was terrible for the chickens and takes a lot of fun out of the whole thing. The remaining chickens are a lot more protected now, and one remaining hen is still on her nest. We'll see what happens.


Happy Father's Day, Dad. I love you so, Val

fairy houses

Becka sent photos of fairy houses and links to websites.

I called Tim and Julia in here that night to show them, and they were intrigued.

Yesterday, an elaborate fairy house took shape.

This is also something I like about homeschool, that an eight, going on nine year old boy can make fairy houses without feeling self-conscious.


It was fun. They left it there, with a caterpillar inside. love, Val

cloudy weekend at the lake

This guy was there.

We also now have LAUNDRY!! I was so excited I actually took l.c. inside and held him up to the side of the washer to watch the water pour in. He wasn't sure why this was exciting exactly, but he humored me.

It was warm enough for these people to swim.









Oh, and her. She's just all cheeks, PLUS she laughed out loud for the first time yesterday, totally enchanted her parents and Aunt Kirsten. The rest of us didn't hear it, but it's recorded on Joe's phone.

In the clip of video, Heidi's head-thrown-back laughter in response to her baby's laugh is as beautiful to me as the child.


Okay, these two guys are playing one-card poker as a team, and it looks like this hand did not go well.


Collages were worked on.

He's wiggling the tricky wire on the video game





It's two dads cooking on Father's Day.

You know, for about thirty-two years now I've been hearing I'm not raising my kids right.


It's nothing new.

Will I be hearing it thirty-two years from now?

Ummm, probably.

It's possible.








Seventeen years ago, at my brother's wedding, a week before Maria was born, my Uncle Gary urged me out onto the dance floor.

He had me tucked against his chest, going in circles across the dance floor, and told me how much he loved me. Then he said, "I have not always agreed with what you've done with your kids."

"But Goddamnit, no one can argue with the results."

Sigh. He's got some pretty great kids too.

In the end, love is the only thing that matters. It's the only thing that ever has. love, love, love, Val

things that stay the same

Today the little pool opened.


It has not changed. Some of the babies from last year are toddlers now, but that's the only thing.










Ahh, June? Friday? How I love you both. love, Val

da do run run

Today at the grocery store, Julia wanted a magazine.

Real bad.

She was clutching it to her chest, eyes closed.

It wasn't actually Tiger Beat, but something much like it.

(Bay City Rollers?)

I said okay.

Well, she's been so absorbed in that thing ALL DAY. She's trying very hard to read anything she can decipher, showing Lydia the pictures, asking her to read captions.

this picture was taken with the flash and i turned it right off again. nothing about flash feels right for their old, pink, grandma bedroom upstairs.

She wanted ME to look at it.

I know very little about any of this. Justin Bieber? Yes, I know who he is, and I love him because you girls do. Selena Gomez? I don't know her from Selma Hayek. Okay? They're both fairly gorgeous, but it's fine regardless.

Julia knows.

As I was looking at the magazine and she was pointing out things to me about Taylor Swift, I realized there was a poster tucked in the middle.

that's her, magazine on the floor.

I carefully tore it away from the staples, and it wasn't ONE poster. It was THREE.

She was beyond delighted, smoothed them all flat on my bed, turned on the ceiling light so she could look at them clearly.

Now they're taped on the ceiling in their room upstairs, and the two of them are so funny--I went up there to see the new posters, but the Barbie houses are distractingly cool.




Barbie has posters of Justin Bieber.

Yes. The icon Barbie herself bows before the Bieber.

God love kids. They're crazy, and they're awesome. love, Val

hanging around in the backyard

That's what we did today. We watched two babies and goofed around.

These little pants are hilarious, unexpected. There's another pair with a squirrel on the seat. They were a gift and a treat.

We did the sprinkler, and that's the best place for a toddler to eat a Moo Jr. Eventually he got cold and bored, and after he left Julia and Tim made a big, fat mud mess. Julia's hair had a weird hard spot in it that I thought was related to the mud.

Nope. Yo-J splashed on her. That's sugar and milk dried all crispy. Baths are definitely needed.

And this is a nap he did NOT want to take. We wrassled and I urged him to sleep. He told me, "All done," and I told him no, we were resting.

After about ten minutes, he rested, very still and the blue eyes blinked open and closed more and more slowly. I tucked him in a quilt nest in Tim's room, turned on the fan to muffle noise and he slept for a couple hours.

This is the tye-dye project, very nice. We won't see the results until tomorrow.



The side walk chalk came out. The whole kitchen floor is covered in chalky footprints now.

He woke up and found us.

It is hard to wake up, I completely understand.




Oh goodness, Buddy.

This peanut had a good day, lots of people to talk to.

What is it about patty cake? It makes her absolutely gleeful.

Now the babies have gone home and the rain has started. After a spectacularly sunny day, now we don't even have to water the lawn. It does not get any better than that. To happy Tuesdays everywhere. love, Val