Summer Olympics for Desperate Mothers

One week until school starts.

Children about to kill each other or get killed by their mother.

Cries of “I’m BOOOOOOOORED” echoing through the house.

Time for the Olympics.

At our house this week that meant spending a whole morning in an assigned wing of the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery; choosing a piece of art; researching said art and artist; creating a report that followed an assigned rubric; making an oral presentation to a panel of judges (two parents and three friends of parents); then waiting while the scores were tallied: 80% for content and 20% for overall presentation.

The award ceremony included three medals (one spray-painted silver, one sort of bronze looking with the help of a sharpie), flowers, and three Target cards in graduated amounts which will be used to purchase school supplies tomorrow.

Results:

Hannah Butler, USA, Gold Medal for her report on Malcah Zeldis‘ Ms. Liberty Celebration

Sam Butler, Scotland (?), Silver Medal for his report on Ruth Munson‘s portrait of Nolan Ryan

Hayden Butler, Switzerland, Bronze Medal for his report on Sam Gilliam‘s painting, which he forgot to find out the name of.  His score also suffered because of his concluding paragraph: “I didn’t learn anything from this experience except that you make super, super, super annoying projects that are pointless and an extreme waist [sic] of time!  And that concludes my ridicule of your project.”  I don’t think he liked the orange flower, either.  Yeah, teenagers!

School starts Tuesday.

All thanks be to God, amen.