18 FEB 26

Kids sleeping in late... they always internally sense when math work sheets are waiting for them...

While I prep plates of toast “with Irish butter!” which Yali has been insisting on lately... he walks out with another of Puck's old NASA tees tucked into his jeans and an empty Cinnamon Toast Crunch box wedged over his head like an Egyptian crown...

Trying to get some mixed numbers started as Yali gets up from the table one more time to grab a sparkling water from the fridge but then... SMACK SMACK SMACK... “WHAT THE HECK?!... Who put EGGS THERE?”... math will have to pause... “How many eggs broke?” // Patience is already on it... “One two three four... five six seven eight nine... ten eleven... almost the... actually... the whole pack... the whole pack broke!”...

So that takes awhile to clean up... the dog helps of course...

And then we're back at the table pencils ready... but Yali has found a roll of duct tape and stretches a strip of it across his lip in an attempt to rip off his silkiest and almost transparent of mustaches... “Yali not now... you can tear off your mustache hairs later”... but he's already accomplished his task and so... “Now time for the beard!”...

We somehow get done what has to get done that morning... including an hour of volunteer work at the old school...

And we're back for the afternoon... more book work and an hour at the park in temperatures almost too warm for spring and bowls of chili for dinner while Yali is busy slapping on temporary neck tattoos in the bathroom before Patience and I chug back to the studio for another class...