Keeping It Real

So.

First, we've finally been having some of the fall days I long for.  Cold, clear nights, crisp mornings - often foggy around here, and gloriously sunny days.  My dogwoods are turning a purple-y red, and the virginia creeper is breathtaking with the afternoon sun filtering through it.  Thank you, Lord, for this brief reprieve before The Yuck sets in.

Let me refresh your memory of a typical fall day:

Second, just in case you're wondering... no, the irony of me being critical of the boys' addiction to "screen time", while using the internet daily myself has not escaped me.

Third, Tate picked up a woolly bear caterpillar, made a little habitat for it, and it promptly made a cocoon.  The caterpillar is cute.  Everyone's favorite.  But do you know what their cocoons look like?

Like a cross between a tiny owl pellet and a hairy turd.  Disgusting. 

And, btw, the amount of black vs. brown does not predict how cold the winter will be.  Rather, it tells how old the caterpillar is.  They have more black when they're younger.

Fourth,  have I mentioned Wyatt's attitude lately?  Yes, well, the hormone tide is rising.  After an excrutiating week of incessant complaining about school work (and everything else in his apparently miserable life), dismal effort at said school work and household chores, and assorted downright nastiness, we've decided that all that snarkiness is about to pay off.  In manual labor.

Hey, if you're too cool for school you need to know what kind of a life you're destined for.

Not that manual labor is a punishment, btw.  Many times I've wished we lived out in the country where I could give the boys more meaningful work to do. 

But for Wyatt, (who has always admired the character of Ernst in the Swiss Family Robinson movie), and has repeatedly expressed his intent to work in a field that uses his mind rather than his muscles, I'm hoping that a full day of sanding (the neglected dresser I started refinishing), cleaning up muck (left all over the yard from cleaning the gutters,) and shoveling and moving yards and yards of pea gravel from the former play area (and - I hope - future garden) to spread elsewhere, may just improve his attitude in the school room.

Feel free to pray for us tomorrow.

Fifth,  bonus!  The boys are spending tomorrow night at my sister's :D