Earlier today I climbed up to the attic where my handy husband was installing a built in desk in my soon-to-be sewing/hide from the children room. I paused and asked "...Do you hear that?" *Explosions of belly laughter* "That's the kids reading the body changes book that you took out of the library." This book has been laying in wait in the kitchen since it was taken out of the library about 40 renewals and $300 in fines ago. Ed had the day off of work today and was on a tear getting jobs done around the house. Door jambs routed, desk installed, Ed bounded up the stairs with the pink and purple book with the cute cartoon pictures of pubic hair, ready to get'er done after the girls were in bed later in the day. ... I'm downstairs and I cannot handle it. I'm hearing isolated words in the conversation float down the gaping hole that is now between the dining room and upstairs bathroom. (leaky drainpipe, sodden ceiling plaster--hole. Yesterday's adventure.) I'm plugging my ears and rocking and can only imagine what my naïve 9 and 12 year old boys are doing. They're not laughing. I had expected this scene to be hilarious. When Ed came down the stairs he went immediately with a flashlight to climb the ladder in our dining room to check the hole like he had scratched off the last thing on today's list and wanted to get a start on tomorrow's list. "So what'd they say?" "Oh, they didn't get it. It's too outrageous of a concept." Two years of stalling about getting around to this moment and that's it? Regardless, I'm sure the boys will remember that lesson for much longer than the one about the identifying features of Romanesque architecture we had yesterday.
So that was the back end of the day. The front end began with Ed heading to Fortinos to buy a live lobster and a bag of chips. The kids had a presentation to give at a homeschooling unit study group that we've been a part of for the last month. Their talk was about PEI and Isaac was going to be speaking about some of the local crustaceans on the island and he wanted a visual for each one. We've been kinda late getting to this group on all the other meeting dates but since today was our day to present, we were trying really hard to get out of the door on time. I thought that if we announced it was time to get boots and coats on and begin the manoevre to the van at 9:00 we'd be good to get there before 10:00 with a half hour drive in between. It's 9:05, 9:07, 9:12 and Ed's not home with the lobster and a bag of chips. Finally, he gets in the door a long minute later, we together pull the wriggling animal out of the bag and try to get a hold of it with tongs so we don't have to touch it with our hands. The shell is slippery, the tongs break and the fella is making a break for it across the counter and we both squeal and when it flicks it's tail. We grab two spoons and he clatters to the stovetop a few times before we are successful in plunging him headfirst into the pot that has been boiling for the last half hour. Our first plan was to cook the lobster as part of the presentation but I'm sure there would have been a lot of small children crying from the trauma if we had gone that route. When the black and green creature turned the bright red colour that cartoon lobsters are known for we were soon in the van with a steaming hot lobster sitting in the passenger seat beside me.
I think the kids surprised themselves with how well they could put together an oral presentation and get up and speak in front of their peers (and their moms). The first practice with Anneke, especially, was a bit rough. I made like I was introducing her saying: "And now Anneke would like to share with you a bit about Anne of Green Gables". "WAAAAAAAAAh" and huge tears rolled down her cheeks. "Is that what you're going to say for your presentation?" I inquired. She quickly laughed through her tears and launched into her material and had the biggest grin when she did a good job of finishing it in front the me. Then I heard her practicing upstairs for her imaginary friends and she adlibbed like she was the most fascinating thing they had ever heard. Tobin, too, was entertaining his lego minifigures with dramatic gesticulating and rousing cadence about why the soil is red on PEI. Their actual performances at show time were more reserved but I was a proud mama at they way they pulled themselves together and pulled it off proving to themselves that they are capable of doing difficult things. They weren't even dry heaving or miserably rattled beforehand which was a relief. Isaac explained: "Well. I was a bit nervous before we started but I felt prepared so it wasn't so bad after all." I wish you could hear his understated, matter of fact, oh-so-cute voice saying those words. Like the Beaver, delivering a line.
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