Is the sky falling?

Not wanting to complain about the weather, which has actually been relatively nice if a bit cold, I haven't had that much to say. Keeping busy as usual, I guess.

My husband's been in China for the last week together with a friend. They went to the world's largest tool show.

My daughter had a friend sleep over for the first time last weekend, and it went surprisingly well. I suppose it helps that I pointed out to her that if she misbehaved, it would be a long time before she'd get to have a friend spend the night again. I was particularly impressed that as soon as the Disney movie they were watching ended at 8:15, they promptly got ready and went to bed. At 8:45 I pointed out to them that if they wanted me to think they were sleeping, they should at least whisper instead of laughing at full volume. It got quieter, and I was totally shocked that at 9:00 it was actually quiet for real. They slept until 7 AM.

On Sunday, none of her friends were available to play, so we ended up baking first blueberry muffins for breakfast then cupcakes for dessert. In between, we made a quick visit to friends who showed us some meteorites that they had collected.

On Tuesday morning, my daughter showed me a "meteorite" that she'd found at school. At first I was very skeptical, expecting an ordinary rock with a dose of imagination. Then I realized that the rock was unusually heavy, and magnets stuck to it. What were the odds of a child finding a meteorite in the grass at school? About the same as getting struck by lightning, I figured. It was much more likely that a meteorite had found its way into her pocket when we were at our friend's house, and that thought made me sick to my stomach.

When I picked her up from school, I explained to her my views on the situation and gave her several opportunities to take back her story, but she stuck to it. We called our friends and they agreed to take a look at it the next day (and check if anything was missing.)

It turns out that the stone really did look like a meteorite, but not one of our friends' meteorites. They did some tests on it and determined that it was some iron slag, perhaps as much as 2000 years old but not from outer space. I guess we'll have to find an archeologist to show it to, but best of all, I'm so relieved to find out that my daughter was telling the truth after all. I feel pretty bad for not trusting her, and I hope that doesn't leave her scarred for life.