May 20th

After being up till about one o'clock in the morning on storm watch the previous night... both younglings are already tossing themselves onto my bed before six o'clock...

Then it's during their final Chinese culture class of the year that Yali is already upset about preparing himself a packed lunch for Yellow Bird... “MOM I DON'T WANNA COOK!” he proclaims // “Yali... making a peanut butter sandwich isn't cooking”... he thinks about this for awhile... but shortly later I find him Minecrafting with his still-empty dinosaur lunchbox sitting on his head like a hat... “Yali...” // “But MOM!”

While the kids spend their last regular-session day of Yellow Bird for the year mostly engaging in water play...

And Oxbear takes video call after video call in his closet-office from behind the banana-print IKEA sheet as acting door (sometimes we're almost too Malcom in the Middle)...

Puck is meanwhile distracting himself from ASVAB geometry review with me to heavily research vintage safes on Facebook Marketplace... “Mom! Would you go in on this with me? Mom... it has so much character and it was even made in St. Louis...” he smiles slyly.... “Come on... you LOVE stuff from St. Louis...”

It's already evening... a rustic supper of sausage and potatoes and biscuits is barely completed before...

...Puck begins hard-knocks-schooling both his siblings on the appropriate way to handle the laundry system as he reorganizes and sweeps up the storage room... “Now I don't want to see it look like that again” he warns them... how many moms do these kids have?

Out for a two-hour class in an almost-cool evening... too cool for May but there are no complaints...

Home to finely shredded bumblebee yellow flannel and bits of dried glue gun glue all over the living room floor... Oxbear and Yali Costume Design, Inc.