12 September 2010

Sophie and Abe headed Back to School on Wednesday. No first day jitters here-- as 2nd and 7th graders, they are old pros and happy to be back. Here's a quick school budget update: our school district added back most Mondays so the kids will be getting 5 days of school a week. They get extra long holiday breaks, instead. The district cut elementary school music teachers and salaries for middle school coaches. Sophie is running cross country, thanks to her coach volunteering his time. She's also in choir this year. She's not in band-- she's not in love with the clarinet and with the amount of metal she currently has in her mouth, it's doubtful she could play it. Sophie is taking Mandarin Chinese this year, a small miracle given the current economy. It's her favorite class.

Brandan put the labor into Labor Day by building shelves and hanging extra rods in three bedroom closets this week. The photo shows him assembling a tower of shelves on our bathroom floor before putting them in the closet.

Here's a before photo of the closet in the worst shape. When we installed our fireplace 2 years ago, the workers ran the chimney through Becky's closet. The chimney doesn't heat up and the building codes allow for flammable material within 2 inches of it. However, without any shelves, the closet hasn't been much use.

Here's the after photo. Becky's not much of a clothes horse (is there such a thing as a clothes beetle?) but loves the simplified and organized storage. Brandan built similar shelves in his and the boys' closets, only with a double tower of shelves in the middle and a single rod on one side. 

And here's a photo of some child labor. Brandan, Abe, Helen and Gibson replaced a cracked sprinkler head in our backyard. They called it doing surgery on the sprinkler.