37/52: Babies, Bonnets, and Watermelon

It was quite the week. Last Friday night, our house got struck by lightning. Apparently there's a reason the previous owner put 5 lightning rods on the roof... The fire department came and found no fires, but several breakers had been tripped, and we were wary to try the HVAC system, since the wires outside had been smoking and fizzing... After an electrician visit the next day, we learned that the hot water heater was broken. And then we noticed dark spots on the girls' ceiling, so clearly something was wrong with the roof... Oh, and the internet router was fried. And in the yard we kept finding random bits of siding, parts of the exploded phone box, and later some glass from one of the bulbs on the lightning rod that apparently blew. But there was no fire! And everyone was okay!

Anyway, it was a week of praying for no rain (because who wants a caved-in ceiling?), trying to figure out what we needed to replace and what could wait until the insurance guy could come out to see the house (hot water was a must, everything else could wait), and just generally praying that everything could get worked out without destroying our finances... And then we found out that hey, homeowner's insurance is actually really awesome, and everything will be fine! Phew.

In the midst of it all, life went on. The cat's outdoor basket was elaborately decorated with cosmos and zinnias. He declined the invitation. Buckets of water were carried to one of the outbuildings to "wash" it, which mostly meant water spilled on the floor (WHY couldn't they just get it from the hose??). Edith learned that she adores hats, and spent much of the week trying various hats on and generally keeping them on her head, which I find fairly impressive. She also emptied out dress-up bins, requesting to wear various fabric scraps, play silks, dresses, skirts, and one memorable combination of a skirt, a robot costume, and a princess dress on top. It was absolutely lovely, as you can imagine.

We had to finish the other half of the massive watermelon, so I sent everyone out to the porch for afternoon snack, and they gorged themselves on watermelon and STILL didn't finish it all. Apparently 6 kids are only capable of demolishing approximately 12 pounds of watermelon in one fell swoop. Now we know. The chickens enjoyed the rest!

There are now two, possibly three new members of our family. They live on the dining room table in a mason jar, and everyone is hoping that they survive the constant jostling from excited observers. Fluffy and Fuzz are, we think, a salt marsh caterpillar and a wooly bear caterpillar, respectively. There also ended up being a small green interloper on my skirt after I was summoned to see the caterpillars outdoors, so we added that one to the jar but now we can't find it. They eat plantain and lamb's quarters, and I'm considering this quite the homeschool science experiment. Entirely child-led, aside from my googling "fuzzy yellow caterpillar" and also "how to build a caterpillar habitat." After all, sometimes you need immediate information!