While you were sleeping...

We're all very amused by the 12-hour time difference to China right now.

For instance, last night, while I was sleeping, Brian was in the Forbidden City taking pictures like this:

And today, while HE was sleeping (because of course it was tonight in China, you see how amusing this is?) I did the usual kids to school, grocery shopping, blah blah blah. I also decided that the unreachable but dead and dangling tree branch in our big maple tree was a hazard and must come down and that I was no longer willing to put up with my nocturnal visitor (yes, that pesky racoon is still delighting in this game) peering in my office window and startling me anymore so I got out the long pole cutter, figured out how it worked and this:

Turned into this:

The little box hedge next to the front hedge got a pretty significant haircut too for good measure and I even weeded the garden. Because you see, while I was doing that, the kids were doing this (the older children are doing "bike rodeo" which seems to involve crossing each other's paths as often and as close as possible, this is sometimes done with more children if more children are available at that moment).

And now tonight (which is tomorrow in China), while the small bicyclists and the tree trimmer are sleeping, Brian will be touring the Great Wall and just now sent me his first vision of it, which looks like this:

And tomorrow morning (which will be tomorrow night in China), I will deal with the small rodent who is systematically chewing up and pulling out all the insulation from the hottub and the broken gate string which now no longer opens the gate when it blows shut behind us (meaning Teagan and I have walked back the long way from school more than once this week).

And so it goes....