One of the small technicalities we had to solve with the acquisition of birds is a supply of newspapers to line the bottom of the cages. We don’t get a daily paper, and I was reluctant to buy papers to use as poop catchers.

Much to my delight, it turns out that Michael has a co-worker who gets the daily paper and brings it into work every day. She has been happy to give the paper to Michael when she’s done with it, so now we have a regular supply of newspaper, and amazingly, it’s even current! Yesterday Michael brought home the paper from that very day! What a luxury item. (Thank you, Chris!) Usually I just read the daily paper online, so it’s not that I haven’t been reading the news, but now we can see it in print.

This morning I told the children to take care of the bird cages, and later on when I checked on them I found them thoroughly engrossed in reading the comics. How could I get too angry, when they’ve never had a regular chance to read the paper before? Instead I just snapped a photo and took delight in the fact that not only was Laura reading, which is not unusual, but Isaac was actually reading very carefully through the comics. Looks like “homeschooling” to me!