Pencil Stew

Kade found out what happens when you put a pencil in a microwave . . .
Fortunately for him, he wasn't being destructive, really. He was just playing around with one of those pencils with the special coating on it that makes it heat sensitive. It changes color when you hold it. So he'd already put the pencil in the freezer and then he decided to heat it up in the microwave.

Apparently, pencil lead has a little bit of combustible energy. The lead exploded right out of the pencil and splattered all over the microwave.

I was none too happy with that little experiment. Hopefully there are no further chemical reactions other than explosion. I didn't think that pencil lead could be so dangerous!

In other Johnson news, the kids all participated in the Choir and Missions Recognition Service yesterday, the end of the year celebrations for our Wednesday night activities. It was SO SAD to say good-bye to Wednesday night suppers for the summer. Now I'll have to COOK on Wednesday nights -- gag, eck, sob! -- and it was SO SAD to say good-bye to teachers and helpers and friends for the kids' choirs and missions groups.

Each of the kids' choirs sang two songs. Konner, who didn't even open his mouth last year, sang pretty well, and even managed some of the hand motions. He's usually the clueless wonder up on stage, as he takes more interest in watching the people in the audience, observing the stage equipment and metaphorically picking daisies. This time, though, he did pretty well. I was proud of him.

Each of the kids did well and each of them are already anticipating the changes coming up in the new school year. Kristofer will be moving up to high school -- he's gotten a lot taller in the last few months -- and Kathleen will be moving up to middle school.

Now lunch is long over and I've got to get back to business. It's Kathleen and Kylie's turn to do their laundry today. Plus we have our regular clean-up. Thankfully I'm caught up with the dishes, and I can thank the ants for that. The ants are back, even after a pest control treatment. I can't leave any dirty dishes at all, or there's a whole bunch of them ready to come marching over. And when I clean them up, they bite -- vicious little creatures.

I'm a little off of my schedule because I moved my walk to morning time now that it's getting warmer. I've got to strain my brain and figure out how to get things done in a different order. It shouldn't be that hard, but it is! After my walk, we all went out to the lawn to weed for 15 minutes. Maybe, just maybe, if we weed for 15 minutes a day we can keep some of the billion weeds at bay.

If only weeds could be changed into gas. Locally, we're paying $3.14 a gallon. I can't imagine what it must be like on the West Coast if it's that expensive here.