March 8

Today we had a fieldtrip to our local landfill.
It was very interesting.
I was hoping for more of a close-up, hoping to give Trev a really great visual of mountains of garbage, (there were mountains alright, but covered up with dirt) but it was very informative, anyway.
He knows quite a bit about it, as we recycle, and we also have a compost heap out back, so it's not as if it were a completely new concept.
I thought that they (city workers) went through the garbage. Martha (Stewart) talks about your garbage people doing that, but they don't do that around here. It gets too smooshed to sort through it.
He was mostly interested in the surrounding grasslands, hoping to see deer -or a deer carcus- and maybe a bear eating the deer. I told him that I'd probably worry about any animals living in the area, as I worry about harmful gases and toxins in the area. Not really from the natural garbage, but from whatever paints, chemicals, etc are thrown into the trash, be it unknowingly or uncaringly.
That's when he started saying "Well, that looks like a good place for a deer carcus, it could get poisoned from the land, fall right there, then a bear could come along and eat it!"
And I said that if the bear (who had traveled this far from the canyons) ate the deer, it would probably get poisoned, too.
I don't think he learned exactly what the lady was trying to teach him, but he learned some things, none-the-less!
I'm extremely suspicious of such areas, I'd not drink water from the area, or live near such a site, but they do go to quite a bit of trouble to keep it contained, and not going into the land. Not that I trust their measures, but still. They plan to place a park on top of it when it's all filled up.
Um... I'll not be visiting.

There is a refuge right next door, -the lady said the water was natural... but -ew. Good thing we have so many lovely, more pristine resources in this area of the country (even close to the city), or I'd feel really bad about it. We're surrounded by mountains and many small natural lakes in the high country, so I don't worry about our animal friends too much.

Anyway.
We received our package from Discount School Supply a few days ago, and Maddie has been into the markers (bitten some tips off already!) and today she played with the paints, I took pictures, but I had the lens cap on! I think we're going to play a bit this evening, so I'll take pictures....

(later)
I wanted to do a few things tonight -including getting our measurements into our new Growth Chart- (maybe Trev tomorrow, not tonight) play with some of our new paints, blocks, or something, but Trevelyn decided to play with his Star Wars Light Saber game that Uncle Nate gave him. And -as often happens- he's had a melt-down over it. Uncle Nate thinks Trev is Really Smart, so he gave him a game meant for age 8+, and while this is a complement, to be sure, it's also very taxing on a five-year-old, who hasn't quite the physical cababilities and coordination of an eight-year-old. But Trev loves the game.
After much shouting and crying (he's very tired tonight) I asked him if he'd like to play with our new Moon Sand (the other has diminished into the Nothingness vacuum) or clay, or the sand table downstairs (I'm thinking 'therapeutic', of course) etc. The answer was a resounding "No!"
I started making a stegosaurus out of clay, and asked Trev what he thought it might be, and he guessed right! I invited him to help me make the dinosaur. "Would you like to make the legs, the tail, or some more spikes?" He opted for the tail. So we all ventured into the living room to make dinosaurs out of clay.
A couple more melt-downs (they really were; screaming, carrying-on, Daddy is trying not to lose it meltdowns) -Maddie grabs them and scrunches them, making them into something else and distorting them- and I tell Trev that I think it is a really fun game to her, and that she wants to play too, but that she doesn't have the words to say "Can I make this piece into something?" And that her fingers don't work as efficiently as ours.
He admits that yes, that might be true.

He ends up (therapeutic, after all) spending several minutes alone, working with the clay dinosaurs, talking and story-telling while the other family memebers have ventured into the kitchen.

Several minutes (perhaps an eternity) later
the story ends like this....
Maddie falls asleep eating corn. Gets swept up and her britches changed. Tucked into the Mama Bear's bed. (Papa Bear may choose to sleep in the same bed, or another... it's not yet been decided)

Trev regroups and relieves while watching Cartoon Network.
Daddy gets into the Bath, and Mama plops a few drops of precious Chamomile and Rosemary essential oils into his bath for his aching back and nerves...
And I come to the blog to finish up the why's and wherefore's of the day.

And even later still...
after I thought I had wroapped it up, Trev dragged me back into the living room to see if his dinosaurs were still there... this time we made a scene from the Carboniferous Period. This scene that you see is an arthropleura (the blue flat worm-thing) surrounded by a bunch of plants and trees.
I think he (as well as Daddy, Maddie, and both Pups) is finally sacked out!
And there you have it.
(phew)

One Final Thought...
I was telling my friend Melissia that I hoped for a bit of action (drama?) tonight, we have all these great tools around, and Trev was just wanting to watch Cartoon Network.
(grin) Goes to show, you'd better be careful what you wish for -especially if you see personal/spiritual evolvement as immediate manifesting! :)

G'night. Sweet Dreams.