You learn something new every day. At least you should.

Being a homeschool mom has it's perks. One of those is learning new things (or re-learning what I forgot I learned growing up). Everyday is an opportunity to learn.

For instance, Lewis and Clark thought the fleas and ticks were more of a nuisance than the Indians and wild animals. What I learned from that: Shrieking and crying when discovering fleas and ticks on your dog or in your home are perfectly acceptable responses to such horridly wretched creatures! I am certain Lewis and Clark would completely empathize with me on that.

Sometimes, you learn new things too early in the day. Before you're awake, for instance. And that is never enjoyable because you just simply aren't ready to learn at 6am. The body and mind are not equipped for that kind of thing. They want comfort, sleep and quiet.

Did you know that birds tap on windows because they see their reflection and think they are attacking another bird? It's true. I read about it at 6:30am this morning after being woken from my comfort, sleep and quiet by two small, fiesty finches rapping on my window pane over and over and over. Now, it is true that sometimes you do want to learn something new at 6am. Like, how to use a gun, which was in fact, my first thought upon awakening to the tap, tap, tapping this morning. But alas, even if I learned how, I didn't have one to practice with, so that educational goal was immediately nixed. You see, sadly, education is not always immediately available to everyone, and this is one of those times.

But I did learn that birds are fairly stolid animals.

And that we should really have a gun.