Phillip is Accident-Prone, Morgan's Art Show and Week Recap

We had a killer work-weekend last week trying to get lots of stuff around the house done before our construction dumpster was removed. We lightened our 'clutter' load considerably, knocked a wall out, and some electrical progress was made. On Saturday, things were going well until I heard a horrible crash and Phillip's yell. Turns out, he was using the hand truck as a ladder by standing on the support on the back. The hand truck probably tipped, rolled a bit and off he fell. His back hit the edge of the hand truck and left quite a mark. But the really startling injury was the huge goose-egg knot that immediately showed up on his elbow. This thing was *huge* and sort of resembled what it might look like if a bone had broken and was sticking out. But he could move his arm and hand, so we figured it wasn't broken. After putting ice on it it began to go down, so fortunately, no hospital day for us. It left a nasty bruise and is still a bit sore a week later now. Perhaps he should be more careful from now on...he's not as young as he used to be!!

Recovering from the work weekend was just as labour intensive as the weekend itself. After knocking down plaster, the dust is horrible and it takes multiple moppings and a hand-washing for the floors to even begin to look clean. I think it was decided unanimously that there would be no more wall or ceilings going down in our house...we're just too sick of the dust and grime. I think we've got the problem walls done as far as insulating goes. After changing out the electrical, Phillip says he will hire out the wall plastering or sheet rocking...whichever we end up doing. I'm glad, because I'm almost too big to be working on our crummy, rickety old ladder. My tummy kept knocking all my tools off of the top which was kind of frustrating.

I spent some time this week making the house look a little more habitable. I covered the other miscellaneous holes in the wall with pictures and a wall hanging. I'm just so sick of our house looking like someone had a temper tantrum and punched the walls. These are mostly 'test spots' where Phillip was looking for and/or following old wiring. The tools and such got put away for now as well, so the house is looking more homey, if that's even possible, without two walls and a ceiling.

The zoo here in Cincinnati has some great programs for kids. One of those are the week long summer camps. After much discussion, we decided to sign Archie up for a week long summer camp there. It lasts all day long. I've never had Archie gone all day long since we home school, so that'll be a bit weird. All of the zoo staff I've encountered seem to be fun, entertaining and knowledgeable, so I know he'll have a great time and learn a lot. We also signed up for the Summer Series of classes at the zoo (much like the classes he is currently taking once per month) so our summer will be busy with fun stuff to do. The church has vacation Bible school, then a music camp, so we're gearing up for an action-packed summer.

Morgan is gearing up for the end of high school. Her last day will be on Friday, a week from yesterday. We attended her art show last night, where the students displayed their projects from this school year. The works were very impressive. I took photos of Morgan's displays.

This one is my favourite, although the photograph definitely doesn't do it justice. It was behind glass, so it was kind of hard to get a good photo. I'm not a fan of abstract art, and I was feeling Morgan's pain when she came home some months ago complaining about having an abstract art assignment. However, she seemed to make the best of it, as she came up with this idea, drew it out, and painted it. Her colours are just fantastic and the design is so interesting. I'll have to get a better picture when she brings it home. I just love it!

Her other offering in the show was her Lotus Flower sculpture, pictured below. She designed and painted it as well. She definitely has tremendous talent! I was very impressed with how far her art has come this year. I hope she finds a way to use it in whatever career path she ends up following.

She showed us her other paintings and sculpture, which weren't in the show. It was really neat to see the progress made.

Archie wanted to take a picture of Phillip and I next to someone's painting. So here we are:

It is currently Saturday morning. Since we have church on Sunday, Archie decided he wanted to do my Mother's Day surprise today instead. The trouble is, that both boys (Phillip and Archie) enjoy sleeping in. So it's almost 10 am, and I'm absolutely starving! I'd better get Daddy to get the ball rolling here. Before I faint dead away!