Yesterday I took the kids to the river again, since it was actually a summery day. There were also 2 extra boys, friends of Zach's. They all brought their fishing poles and tried to catch bass, but only got tiny rockfish (that's what Zach calls them, anyway) to bite. I brought a book, but, really, when you're at a river and the sun is shining, it feels good to just sit and stare and be blinded by the sun on the water, doesn't it? I built a few pathetic stone pillars, and made everybody check out this paved walking/biking trail very nearby cuz I was really bored after awhile. Will was thirsty, and we were out of beverages, so I told him the blackberries that grew along the side of the trail were "blackberry juice balls", and that made them more interesting. He actually ate them after that! We saw a cool yellow frog, pretty good-sized, in a mucky pond. Everyone, including me, gets pretty excited about frogs. Zach is the original frog whisperer, or at least, frog catcher/handler.
Today was a very busy and diligent day of sorting through accumulated, unorganized junk to put in my new old file cabinet (yay for Craigslist!!). I threw away a bunch of junk, started a bunch of files, and ended up unexpectedly attacking Zach's messy lair. It was very bad, but it's groovy now. I corralled him and made him finish it. He also had to wash my car for free for disobediently leaving his clothes everywhere, clean and unclean, despite being told 2,006 times that that is what dressers, hampers, and closets are for. I just bought him some new pants cuz I thought he was so freaking desperate, and then we clean his room and discover 1 dirty pair in the closet, another good pair with a missing button in his drawer, and there may have been more. He really didn't have any room for clothes in his dresser because it's full of stuff--boy treasures. Snips and snails and puppy dog tails and all that. Found the missing math book, though, thank God. It was under the full junk box on the floor. Been wanting that for 2 months. He was supposed to do math through the summer, but the book got "lost."
Had hamburger barley vegetable soup for dinner. And my good buddy Liz at work only has 5 more days and then she quits. I am jealous and sad to lose her.