Who needs a lunar eclipse...

...when you can have this?

Did anyone else try to watch the lunar eclipse last night?
We did, when all kids were asleep, but it´s quite cloudy over here, so there was no moon to detect. Yet, what we did get was fireflies, lots of them, and grass that was waisthigh and hard to tresspass in the dark, and therefore left us giggling and with lots of moskitostitches on our bare legs.

The pic above, that´s just a photo I took, about five minutes ago, in our backyard. Because I just can´t get enough of the wide open fields, so I had to try and conservate the sunset. Which can never be an adequate substitute for the real thing.

Apart from that, I´m spending these days in school. I´m testing the reading skills of our second graders, by letting each one read for me, and I absolutely love this task, because I adore to witness how each child´s personality shines through in his or her reading style, and how 15 kids can interpret the same text in 15 different, unique ways.
I love to be the one to tell them that reading isn´t about making a theoretic construct in your head about when to raise, or to soften the voice, but about feeling the story behind the words, and then, everything else will fall into place.

I read in the library today, as well.

Yeah! My best evil pirate glare, to scare away all the little ones.
No, I´m cheating. We made eyepatches, and tiny treasureboxes, made with a free template I found over here.
Naturally, and I had my crew with me:

 Na, that´s just part of my crew, of course. But evil... ha!

Um... did I ever mention I love my job? Sometimes I feel like all my life has been heading into this direction, and like it´s the only thing that makes sense - entertaining children, preferably combined with teaching them to live in literature. I sincerely hope that I´ll be able to do this until the day I die, or at least close.

And apart from that?
Well, coconut popsicles are nice, too:

So thinks Mehmet, who figured how to cut his own hair.

He says he´d like to collect a drawer full of his own, fluffy hair. Sigh. But as he definitely isn´t the first child to check this obligatory childhood experience, I think it´s quite cute. And his hair is fluffy. I totally get his point :)

So... actually I only came here tonight to share some new music with you. Well, new for me.

I love them! Such fine bluegrass, and every song I discover is a joy. Their voices remind me of Alison Krauss, and I think that is seriously the highest compliment I can pay a female singer.
Oh, and I also love this one, for it´s witty lyrics:
Listening to this, I can clearly see and smell the sailor, and instantly like him ;)