The Speller

Adelaide is all in a tizzy today because

She's been waiting for months for this letter, informing her that yes, her dreams have come true, she gets to participate in the Iowa State Fair spelling bee next month.  Day after day, trotting out to the mailbox, only to be disappointed by a notable paucity in spelling bee-related letters- until today.

For whatever reason, our schools don't have their own spelling bees, which is a problem when you have a daughter whose favorite game is, "Give me a word to spell!"  Now she finally gets a chance to have a stranger with a microphone give her many difficult words to spell while she stands on a stage in front of large state fair crowds.  I have not described the experience in quite this way to her, which is probably why she's still looking forward to it.

When she hasn't been obsessively checking the mailbox- giving me the opportunity to crow, "No post on Sundays!" an average of, oh, say once a week?- Adelaide has been, among other things, volunteering at our local library.  She was excited to begin several weeks ago, but I wondered how long this job would hold its charm for her; I was a little afraid she was expecting hours of reading, rather than whatever tasks actually need doing.

The first day, I picked her up after an hour and she was so dang excited.  "Mom, it was awesome!  I got to shelve books, and dust, and spent a long time denewstickering!  I want to stay longer next time!"  After I ascertained that she had peeled "New!"stickers off of no-longer-new books, among other things, I answered that, yes, she could stay longer next time, as long as the librarians really did have things for her to do and she wasn't underfoot.  A month later, she still loves it.

See?  Not walking but running toward her volunteer hours at the library.

Eldest child has rounded out her summer by playing with her brothers like they're her favorite people in the world, except for the times she's engaging in what appears to be a fight to the death with them.  She's well-rounded like that.

Angle Trees

Apparently today is some sort of giving day.  Like, donate to your favorite charity, give money to those in need, think of someone besides yourself for once this Christmas season.  And I am all for that.  All. For. It.

But.


If I see one more person use the internets to type "Can't wait to go visit the Angle Tree!" or "Our family is getting one Angle for each member of our family this year!" or "Headed to pick out an Angle off the Angle Tree!" I am going to lose it.

I know what they mean.  Obviously, they mean "Angel Tree."  (At least, I think that's what they mean.  I created the below Angle Tree concept because I guess you never know.)  You know, the tree where you pick out an "angel" that describes a local needy family and purchase whatever it is they need this holiday season?

Obviously, the Angel Tree program is a wonderful one.  The Angle Tree program, on the other hand?  That's forcing math on people, at Christmas of all times.  It's not going to make you any friends, except weird people who like math.

Art courtesy of moi.  Truly, I have a gift.  It's not artistic ability, but that's beside the point.

Would you look at that!  Mr. H was right:  I just used Geometry in my adult life.  The man was a prophet, not a liar like I'd so long assumed.  Or maybe he was just a desperate teacher trying to motivate his sullen students to care about Geometry.  

I'm leaning toward prophet.