We have a house!

Not that we live there yet, but we have one. And it’s just the right one – isn’t God’s plan amazing? It’s the right size, right floor plan. But! Our bedroom was painted a very odd brown. Like tobacco brown. I’m sure to the the former owners it was exotic and modern, but if I have to wake up to that color, I am going to commit hari kari come January, when we get a ration of six hours of cloudy daylight every day.

So before we move in, I am painting it butter yellow. This is taking a while, so I’ve been listening to the Bach lectures I got for mother’s day. I’ve piled through 18 so far. And when I’ve had enough…

• Cake “Prolonging the Magic” and “Motorcade of Generosity” – The perfect antidote for overdosing on German Lutheran composers of the High Baroque. They are pure snark.
• The Dandy Warhols “Come Down” – I feel twenty years old when I hear these guys. I mean that in a good way.
• Lush “Split” – About half of this album could be used for CSI incidental music. Images of hip, funky lab techs dance in my head. Or maybe it’s the paint fumes.
• Cornershop “When I Was Born for the 7th Time” – Sunshine music.

I’ll try to get before and after pics up soon. Now back to work!

See? We can all get along. We can all dislike the French together. (Tip o’ the Swiffer: LGF and the CBC. Strange bedfellows.)

Ahhh. Unity; kinda like a warm hug, isn’t it?

Well, okay, happy Mother’s Day, too. I got flowers and a lecture on Bach from Mr. MG, a handmade bracelet and card from the Princess, and from the Bear…a sermon! Today was the first time ever he stayed in the nursery without me having to be called back because he was hysterical with separation anxiety. So I got to hear a whole sermon, all the way through. I haven’t had that since he was a few weeks old and grew out of sleeping through church. And he was happy as a clam when I came back. Joy!

But today is also V-E day. What has sixty years of separation taught us? That swastikas are cool for party outfits. That millions of dead Jews are a figment of imagination. And that it was the Germans who deserved pity, what with the U.S., England, and Russia ganging up on them and all.

That last bit of bilgewater has been cropping up a lot more lately. It’s insidious. But it’s there. I couldn’t find a concrete example until today. MSNBC has a WWII slide show, and the only dead bodies are the German civilians lying in the streets after an Allied firebombing. We also get a shot of a German soldier sitting forlornly amid the rubble of the Reichstag. But here’s Churchill and Roosevelt laughing with Stalin! And King George giving a royal wave to the masses! And U.S. infantrymen shaking hands and smiling with their Russian counterparts. (You just know they’re inviting them to the big Berlin beer-n-BBQ.) Cos it was all a party for the Allies.

No pictures of the death camps. No mention of the Jews. Not one shot of Normandy.

Sometimes you’ve just got to show the world what you’ve got. And he’s got a lot.

Before the internet, this would be some guy gyrating in his bedroom in front of the mirror. But now, he has the ability to beam it all over the world. Isn’t technology grand?

Update: A pox upon me for not giving a tip o’ the Swiffer to the Sunshine Badger, who e-mailed this to me!

The end of the school year, that is. Yesterday the Princess finished the last of her grammar book, and is just about done with math, spelling and her core. Whew! Just in time to move into our new place.

As it is, I am toast. A plague of some sort moved through the entire family one by one, giving the Bear a fever that peaked at 103.3, and Mr. MG a nasty sinus infection. I plugged away with the Airborne and echinacea, but after two weeks of exposure I have succumed. I would just like to have my lungs back thankyouverymuch, since these wet sponges I’m trying to breathe with are not doing the trick.

Over the summer, the Princess has decided to start into Spanish and cursive writing. And we’ll probably try to catch up on all the science I blow off during the year. But this is recreational stuff, and not serious head-knocking work, so I think we’ll manage.

And the coming summer months mean unpacking! And the return of the cats! And Tivo, my preciousss. (We wants it!) Nothing but good on the way.

Tenn at School@Home has started a homeschooling blogger’s support egroup here. Wanna join the fun?