I love Fridays!

Dejanique: Mooo-oom! Luciana just put my toothbrush in the toilet.
Me: On purpose?
D: Yep.
Me: Luciana! Come downstairs right now.

L: [comes downstairs, very calmly stands in front of me with shoulders back, spine straight, and looks me in the eye] Yes?
Me: Explain, please.
L: Well, she always just helps herself to my stuff: headbands, ponytails, my boombox, jewelry, without my permission, so I was paying her back.
Me: Did she just take something of yours?
L: No, but she does that sometimes.

Me: So you felt that throwing her toothbrush in the toilet, out of the clear blue, would be an appropriate way to pay her back?
L: Yes.
Me: If your sister helps herself to your things again, tell ME, so I can deal with it. It's not your job to pay people back. Now, go upstairs and apologize to your sister.
L: [stomps upstairs and mumbles without moving her lips] sorry.
Me: [alone in the kitchen, laughing my ass off]

My math/weeding actitivity that I had planned for yesterday did not go as well as I hoped. L lost interest in weeding after about 10 minutes. We were only working on the play area, weeding easy stuff from the woodchips. I was doing the hard stuff--digging out dandelions and grass. She was supposed to put each different weed in its own bucket: boxelder seedlings, maple seedlings, clover, & creeping charlie. We would then count and graph the weeds and try to figure out, based on logical thinking and observation why the distribution was as it was. We would then create a pie chart with the weeds themselves and determine which weeds had the biggest surface area. We will finish this, but we ran out of time when we were about 90% finished. Maybe after a break, she will be more excited about it. She normally loves to pull up the easy weeds from wood chipped areas.

She already spent her tooth fairy money. She had found a necklace at Earth Song, last time she went with Mark, that she fell in love with. It's a glass, sapphire blue vial, with metal scrollwork. It's used to hold essential oils and stuff like that. She couldn't wait to get out there to buy it, as soon as she found that she had enough money. We had to fill it up right away with some essential oil we made from the lilacs. Oh, the tooth fairy left some fairy dust for her too, which thrilled her to no end.

Dej and I went out to Kohl's tonight to purchase a few work outfits for her. We got four complete outfits, which I think is a decent start. That should get her through a week or two. If she wants more than that, she can build her wardrobe with her own money--now that she's a rich working girl. I can't wait to actually see her in the clothes. They are very cute, and she looks fabulous in everything! Despite the fact that they are very stylish and were from the juniors dept., she keeps calling them "Grandma clothes". Apparently anything that's not jeans and hippie-ish, is a "grandma outfit". Welcome to the real, old peoples' world, Dejanique. I met another vegan, though, on our outing. The girl who checked us at Kohl's saw my Vegan bracelet and asked me if we are the only two vegans in Janesville. The poor girl just moved her a month ago and is obviously suffering from (lack of) culture shock. Janesville is not a kind place to those who are progressive. I gave her our group's website and my cell phone and reassured her that there is a group of us in the area--not too many, but enough to have a family and keep your sanity.

My husband just roused from his nap. Luciana is spending the night at my mom & dad's, and Dejanique is out with Brandon and a group of friends. It's time for the man and I to go out and find something for dinner.

To come tomorrow...some precious pictures of the baby finches in the nest on our front porch light!