Catharsis

I tended to the yard the other day. Something I have not done since October. Lily and Bella played in the sprinklers while I hacked and cut and removed most of the bushes in our backyard. They were overgrown and I had a lot on my mind. Then I discovered bugs, their fate was sealed. 7 bags of foliage later, I figured I let my emotions get the best of me. Better the plants than my hair. Kiera came home and with a shocked expression declared- The yard is bald! Phil merely said, I didn't realize we had so much fence. I guess bug spray and a little pruning would have sufficed. Oh well, bug spray probably causes cancer. Actually it causes reduced adrenal function. Mitotane is isomerically linked to DDT. It was discovered to reduce adrenal function under initial trials as a pesticide.

Phil helped me tackle the front lawn this weekend, but I think he was merely protecting the shrubbery. Then, having maxed out our productivity inclination for the weekend- we took the girls to the water park. Phillip was at a birthday party so Phil was feeling the abundance of estrogen. It was a good time. Our theory was that it was a public place doused in chlorine- hopefully that would be 'safe'. Yet after about the 85th time of yelling at them to stop drinking the pool water- I realized our logic had been faulty- very faulty. We all hung out for awhile in the wave pool, then I got to chill and hang with the littler ones in the keiki area while Phil and Kiera had some quality time on the big slides. It's always fun to watch them have fun.

We also reinstated game night. We had purged most of our games a few weeks back since they were missing parts and pieces- so when I spotted a self contained clue game at Target- I decided game night was back on. After explaining the premise to Kiera- we started. She did not like to go into the rooms, or guess who dunnit, she just kept moving her piece around. I was wondering if she was really grasping the concept, but was pretty sure I had figured out the mystery when Phil made the accusation: I think Miss Scarlett did it in the Study with the Knife. I guessed Miss Scarlett and Knife- I wasn't sure about the room. He looks at the cards- KIERA! do you have the knife? She looks at her notepad then her cards. Oh yeah I guess I do. I thought Phil was going to explode- he's very competitive and she sucked the victory away from him. Allright round two. Each time Phil asks her specifically if she's sure and tells her to look at her cards to make sure. He is more hesitant this time- I thought it was fairly bold for him to make the accusation this time- but he was sure- I think it was Professor Plum, In the conservatory, with the revolver. Again, he looks at the cards, again I think he may just explode. KIERA! DO YOU HAVE THE CONSERVATORY?!! And with a completely innocent befuddled look- Kiera says - what? as she proceeds to look at her cards. I am laughing hysterically at this point. She totally has the conservatory. I now realize we have to play a third game and if Phil doesn't legitimately win- we will be here all night. He managed to pull it off. And later, while we were debriefing the game- he says "I think she just wanted our attention." Well duh- when was the last time Kiera got the exclusive attention of both of us- it definitely wasn't at the talent show- we could have been trying to land a lunar module and she wouldn't have noticed- but she was as content as could be pretending to play with us. Now if we can convince her how much fun it is to actually PLAY we'll be onto something.