$1 of fun and some other things

We went to the dollar store tonight. We needed balloons for science experiments. I had a huge ziplock bag full of balloons, but they disappeared. I bet if I went and cleaned under Thomas's bed, I'd find them.

A friend of mine showed a picture of a cute clay creation her daughter made. It was precious and made me want to play with clay. There are two brand-new Sculpey kits upstairs hidden away for Christmas presents. I really didn't want to get into those, so was thrilled when we happened to find boxes of modeling clay at the dollar store.

We bought one box.

That one box provided 2 1/2 hours of play tonight -- play by Thomas and me. It was cheap clay, though. When we started working it in our hands, our hands turned colors. Mine were green and Thomas's hands were blue. They still are, even after washing them numerous times.

Thomas made a cute hermit crab and a darling bird. He's feeling sad because all six of his hermit crabs died, so he had to make a new one. (No, they weren't molting.) I just made messes.

We had a ball.

It got me to thinking, deep in the far regions of our homeschool room closet is a Sculpt Now kit. We got it this summer, watched the video, and for some strange reason, put it away. Perhaps I should dig that out.

***

School today went much better. We spread it out over the day and finished at 5:30. We took a long break between each subject. That was kind of nice. Thomas and I lied down on the living room floor and did geography together. Last year it was his favorite subject. This year it's his least favorite subject aside from math. So I tried to make it fun. To me it felt like we had really connected to each other as we learned. (Yes, we.) Thomas said it was "kinda' fun. Oh well.

*****

I got news that the cowboy is not doing well. It seems he is only eating ice cream and not wanting to drink anything. He's losing weight rapidly. He's in and out frequently. It breaks my heart -- but it's life. The day my mom died, we had a long talk. In fact, it was minutes before she died unexpectedly. She said to me: Death is a part of life. You're born, you live, you die. That's the way it's supposed to be. It's only hard on those you leave behind. She was right. It's hard to watch happening, though.

I think the best thing that I can personally do to honor both the cowboy and my mom is just to live my life without worrying about them. It makes the mundane days seem special, because in reality, they are.