this week I have fewer children, and they are younger than last week's camp. There are 6 boys and 3 girls. Being preschoolers, they can't hike as far as the kindergarteners and first graders. We stayed pretty close to the center, scrutinizing trees, gopher holes, and piles of poop. We are supposed to be learning about habitat, and perhaps by the end of the week some of the kids will remember what "habitat" means. So far, this group seems to enjoy the visitor's center the most, as opposed to last week's group, who only wanted to hike and hike (when they weren't running around in frenzied circles). Of course, the little girl who got stung by a bee today inside the visitor's center has probably formed a different opinion. Other than that, I think today was a much better first camp day than the chaotic one I had last week. I'm beginning to learn where everything is.

This weekend we managed to clean a good portion of the house, and it really helps lower stress levels when we can find things immediately rather than having to dig for them. The boys are once again promising to keep the playroom clean for more than a day. Maybe they'll actually do it this time.

I think I'm getting used to getting up in the morning, although I was pretty tired over the weekend. I actually got up at nine on saturday without the aid of an alarm. Sometimes I feel like I have jet-lag. But, darn it! I haven't even flown anywhere! No fair!

cds I listened to while driving though the faceless miles and miles of suburban sprawl: Stone Breath "Lanterna Lucis Viriditatis", Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov "Andrey Rublyov" soundtrack, Eduard Artemiev "Solaris" soundtrack (japanese bootlegs of Tarkovsky soundtracks), and The Spectral Light & Moonshine Firefly Snakeoil Jamboree "Scarecrow Stuffing"