Slave Driver, Part 1 (Because you know we'll make it to at least Part 500)

Yes, it was another dreadful day. I made the children get up by 8:30. Early, I know. Then they had to do terrible and unnecessary chores like showering and brushing their teeth. And then when they could stand no more, I made them walk all the way to the nearest elementary school for a free lunch. I've measured--it's less than a mile! Oh, there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Why didn't I just ask Caleb to cut off his left leg? That surely would have been easier than using our legs, heaven forbid. But on the way, Elisabeth discovered huge fish in a drainage ditch (what do they do when the ditch dries up anyway? seriously, it was like 4 inches of water), and Hannah identified a dead mole (ick!!!!), and Rex observed, "Look, Mom, look! It's a dead water bottle!" Yep, we had us a fine, fine nature walk today. And then we came home--yes, we trudged all the way back, even past the dead water bottle--and got the Slip-n-Slide out. Who knew that it could be so much fun? For 5 minutes. Then I was called upon to negotiate world peace. No Nobel Prizes for me in the near future, by the way. Still working on the pics of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." Daddy got to see part of it tonight via webcam, but Sariah was much more interested in playing with the mouse. I still haven't fixed my email from her last hands-on technology exploratory activity. That girl has some serious technology control issues (first the camera, now the computer, what next, do I really want to know?).