Wednesday things

This morning Phoebe spilled a cup of water on a laptop and completely fried it. 

Zoë was doing math on the couch, lying on her stomach, with the laptop resting in front of her. And Phoebe walked up with a cup—and open water bottle, actually—and just...there goes that laptop.

She has been a challenging child lately (I mean—are open containers of water even allowed in the living room? They are not so...).

Fortunately she's very cute.

*****

We had our first day of co-op today. I'm teaching ukulele to...some group of kids. Are they grades 4 and 5? Who is to say? Zoë is in my class, which she's excited about. 

I was nervous about saying yes to co-op because I'm afraid I'm a little bit busy, but the moms really wanted me to come back to teach ukulele. So I said that I could as long as I didn't have to be a co-teacher for any other classes. So I'm teaching 8 hours, but my kids will end up with 32 hours of instruction (24 of which I'll be able to be somewhat alone to get some work done—I could be all the way alone if Phoebe would go to the preschool class, but...she won't go alone, so...Rachel went with her for the first hour today (while I was teaching), but Phoebe wouldn't go back alone and Rachel wanted to get some math work done, so Phoebe just hung out with me). 

I taught the kids outside because apparently there were some complaints about me wearing a mask while I was teaching last year. But, honestly, my kids have been sick since the middle of June so everyone should be grateful we're masking up and not sharing these germs we have (because they are brutal).

I checked for various hazards before spreading out blankets for the kids to sit on—anthills and goose poop, mostly—and the area I chose seemed to be mostly clear of those things. A couple of kids noticed some stray ants wandering across the picnic blanket, but nothing too concerning.

After class, a boy in the class wanted to show me some things that his brother had taught him already (his brother took ukulele with me last year) so I stopped to listen to him, and he's really quite good already (so I know I can bring in some more challenging stuff for some of the kids to work on while other kids are mastering the basics). And then I started stinging all over because...

I'd stopped to listen to him right on an anthill!

My legs were burning so I did the only thing any sane human would do and kick off my shoes (flip-flops) and danced around in the grass, slapping ants off my legs.

I mentioned two hazards in the grass, though, didn't I? Ants—which I was clever enough to discover what those look like,* and goose poop, which I had stopped looking out for altogether.

So not only was I stomping around wildly in the grass...I was also stomping around wildly in goose poop. Barefoot. 

"The curse of co-op strikes again!" Andrew texted after I'd texted him to tell him what happened (and to send him a picture of the dozens of tiny welts on my ankles). Because remember that one time we couldn't go to co-op without something terrible happening—Zoë stepping on a nail, contracting COVID, and...what else?? It just seemed to go on and on.

So we're starting our year out strong!

*****

There was a school shooting today, in Winder, GA, about midway between our house and UGA campus. Two students and two teachers were killed and I believe nine others were wounded. The suspect—a 14-year-old child—was apprehended. But we're all a little shaken up about it.

I honestly don't understand how these things keep happening...with no real change coming out of it.

Rachel says this is the fifth friend she's had to text...to see if they're alright...while there's an active shooter (or alleged shooter) roaming the school. Why do we live like this?!

Some of the friends the girls made at FSY live in Winder, but they go to a school across town (so not this particular high school), though Rachel didn't know that...and it didn't matter, anyway, because their school was also placed on lockdown and then...the kids pretty much didn't do anything for the rest of the day (and schools will be closed for the rest of the week) because this kind of thing is rather traumatizing, honestly.

But there's probably nothing we can do to stop it, so why bother, amirite?

I mean, Canada has 8 school shootings on their Wikipedia page.

Australia recently imprisoned their first student school shooter (who fired three shots on campus and injured...no one).

I don't know what's different about Canada and Australia and the United States, but it's gotta be something. Maybe we should look into what's different and try that. 

It's worth a...shot.

Why is "school shootings" even...a term? Like...this has become a really sickening part of our culture. And it is a part of our culture, whether we want it to be or not. 

Rachel was in kindergarten when Sandy Hook happened. And I remember running up to meet her at the bus and just squeezing her and never wanting to let go. Here we are, at the beginning of her senior year...and she's texting her friends to see if they're safe, if they're alive. 

It's not okay.

It's not okay to send our kids off to a war zone every day.

It's weird. It's sickening. 

And we should do something. Am I advocating for gun control? 

YES! SURE! If that's what it takes (and studies show that...that is what it takes). 

I've been pro gun control since I realize it was a thing (which was when I moved to the United States two decades ago and had to watch a presidential debate for my US History class and I was like, "Ummm...we're debating what now?!" I couldn't even understand how it was something up for debate and here I sit two decades later wondering why we're still having the debate...while children keep heading into the school all smiles and pig tails and too-big-of-backpack...and coming out on stretchers.

It. Is. Insanity.

*****

In other news, we have a beautiful new washing machine. It arrived on Friday. And it's pretty great!

*****

And it's cool enough that we had the windows open while I was reading to the kids before bed, and over the screeching of the katydids and crickets and cicadas, I heard the soft hoo-hooing of an owl sitting in a nearby tree. So I stopped reading and shushed the kids and we sat in the somewhat silence and listened for the owl to sing again. And it did! Again and again!

Alexander balanced on the sofa on his knees, craning his neck to see out the window into the blackness beyond, his mouth pulled into an astounded O, eyes wide with excitement.

"I've never heard an owl before!" he squealed, lisping through his gappy teeth (he still hasn't grown in his two front teeth). "I've theen an owl in the daytime before, but I've never heard one hooing!"

So we sat and we listened together. 

And it felt like such a sacred privilege to be settled on the couch, surrounded by my children, listening to the owls.

* I mean, what are the three terrors of the Fire Swamp? One, the flame spurt—no problem. There's a popping sound preceding each; we can avoid that. Two, the lightning sand, which you were clever enough to discover what that looks like, so in the future we can avoid that too...