Parents didn't make it after all as the snow is just too heavy farther up north to have made the journey viable. :(

Oh well.

Today we spent several hours reading our animal and dinosaur/pterosaur books and three chapters of LW&W - never wanting to stop. Since going "waldorf-ish" his play and interests have developed by light years masha'allah. His interests are now around nature rather than around vehicles and he is much happier role playing and experiencing life from the inside out. As such, a lot of new things and ideas have been made available to him that just weren't possible (or very difficult) when his main aim in life was to develop four wheels and turn into a diesel engine.

So today through our reading we touched upon the water cycle, the difference between fresh water and salt water, what twenty different words meant, what 'male' and 'female' means, what an echo was, thus conversely how sound 'works' which lead onto a few minutes of closing our eyes and 'feeling' the sound that came out of our mouths, and then onto Helen Keller, and bats and dolphins (chinese freshwater dolphins), we have learned about the habitats of nearly fifty animals and heard tales of lions and rhinos and mandrills and he knows the difference between various snakes including the difference between a cobra and king cobra. We also learned new numbers by reading the page numbers and discussed various number sequences. Phew. And it was only 11 O'clock! Tell me you'd do all that in school??!

We are delighted to see that some tomato shoots are already through. He's very pleased with himself - planting and seeing things grow is making him feel very important ;-)



I am getting stabbing pains in my head and still feel very fragile and unsure although my mood is a lot better, and dropping crumbs is no longer making me want to take running jumps at peoples heads or wanting to rive their eyeballs out of their sockets. I'm just squidgey. Which sounds cute but it isn't.

Received an email from a paleontologist and we are discussing the Loch Ness monster (!). I can't believe I am actually having this conversation with someone so educated and I hope I never meet him - for I will ever be 'that goon who talks about Nessie'. Nice chap but I think he is wrong on one or two points and Boss does too - always a good reason to contact a paleontologist - to let him know your son thinks he's wrong (shreik!). Oh well. We may trouble him for some dino-facts when we feel like annoying someone again.

Played with dinosaurs and had fun making silly stories up. Then did some more weaving finishing off the mini-project with a little help.







It's a teeny rug and he's using it as a dino-rug for the dino-box to keep them warm. Well it *is* cold today...

Thinking, in honour of spring (ha ha), of doing various art pieces centring around the subject of daffodils. Mother's Day is coming up and it would be nice to have some art pieces to dole out, the possibilities are endless - plus we always used to dye boiled eggs at Easter so may give that a go. We used to have egg fights and see which egg could smash the most amount of shells - did any of you do that? Memories. Nearly wrote 'mammories' which is an entirely different post...

Then I received a very generous gift this evening just before maghrib - once again the sisters here are more helpful and kind to me than I am to them *hangs head* and makes me glad I live here and want to help others that I know are out there but hidden and in need.

Life is an uphill struggle, isn't it. It is a living lesson on bewilderment and pain, with just enough joy to give us a taste of heaven. The question of suffering has been playing out in my mind recently - it's the age-old argument against a (good) God. Sometimes it is too much to bear, then out of nowhere, for no reason at all, without having earned it or bargained for it, there comes some strength - a gulp of air before going under again. It's more than I deserve. I look around and have so much to be grateful for. And it's more than I could have hoped for. Life is a grindstone which crushed our nafs and makes us either useful or simply bitter. The question of suffering can be answered by those who have never experienced pain or loss or hardship; for those who have the question is irrelevant. You put your hours in and you take your chances, you grab at the lifelines thrown to you and you cling on for dear life until you're pulled aboard again. I don't understand life or death, or heaven and hell or one iota of the thing we call "god". I know that this life is imperfect so that must mean it isn't ultimately very important - why build a house of a sandy foundation - so I build my houses on permanency - God. I know that life is fleeting, so I know that pain will end. And joy too. Life is horrible and grotesque, full of unimaginable horrors. Then it is good again and our memories fade. In the weave of life and death, joy and pain, sometimes there are highs and of course there have to be the lows. To be able to have gratitude in both instances is a blessing. And I am grateful. Even if I hurt, I am still grateful.

I smell of baby puke. I have to go now.