Washing Dishes

We have settled down into a nice little routine here. Walk the dog several times a day (he had a yard before). I moved the dishes into a lower cabinet so the children could set the table, a job they are used to having. So they each set their place for meals and then bus their dishes into the kitchen and place them on the counter when they are done. Natalie washes. Leah rinses and puts things in the dish drainer. Rebecca wipes down the table. I cook, of course, and clear away the food we haven't eaten and put it in the fridge. We brought some games and toys over from the house and put them in the basement to make a sort of makeshift playroom. I haven't gotten up into the loft yet but I'd love to sleep there. Right now I'm in a room with Becca and we each have a single bed. Leah and Natalie are sharing a double bed in the other room. I guess I could have slept with Leah (she has to be in the bedroom with no carpet) but N and L are used to being together and wanted to share a bed so I said okay. Today Leah squirreled her dental floss away into her room and proceeded to tear off lengths of it and drop them in the electric radiators. So that was exciting. We made apple cinnamon muffins for snack and then gave the dog a nice long walk and did an explore of our property. AM was church and the sermon was about that passage where Jesus is talking about not worrying about things... God takes care of the flowers of the field and the little birds so don't you think he's going to take good care of you too? That was the perfect thing for me to hear as we wonder about the upcoming homelessness situation. Right now the girls are pleased as punch to be having a summer vacation and hopefully we'll get to spend lots of time down on the beach and at the playground and they will get to know some of the other little children here. My mind is mostly on the packing and moving. So much stuff to get out of the big house! Luckily Tidewater is giving me a generous amount of space in the elementary classroom to store my summer camp materials... I was upset at the idea that things might be lost in the move and I wouldn't have them when I needed them. We did a walk-through and the teacher and I talked about what things she would leave out for me. It is nice to have ready access to the library and the art supplies and to not have to pack everything in. The elem. kids are also tending our veg. garden seedlings for this last week of school and then I guess they will be here on our screened porch until time comes to plant them.

Another tick today... we'll have to be super-careful about that now that we are even more rural than before. This was a tiny tiny one, the Lyme disease kind, so I am glad that Natalie brought it to my attention that it was running around on her arm. She discovered it in church so I had to get up and leave the sanctuary and go flush it down the toilet in the ladies room. I'm still glad she told me, though; it was the right thing to do. I have been frustrated lately that my girls aren't more independent and then I realized that they can only do what I teach them. So if I want them to be able to do more things on their own, I am the one who has to make that happen. It seems like if I ask Leah to do something, she'll wander off, get discouraged and give up almost immediately and just yell for me to do it. Like if I ask her to go and get herself a fork. Yes, I know this is a new kitchen but she could at least open a drawer! She just can't think through how to solve a problem. So I have to work on that with her and do lots of problem solving activities. Like, you are wise and I know you can figure this out for yourself. Natalie gets a lot of that positive reinforcement at school. All of a sudden you turn around and you don't have two toddlers and an infant, you have three little girls who are perfectly capable of doing lots of things if shown how and given adequate supervision and plenty of encouragement. I need to pull back a bit from always taking over and doing it myself. Faster yes. But not better. And I have to tell you that Leah has not done a dish rinsing job before and I am quite sure my glass of milk tasted like dish detergent but that's okay. I'll survive. Her sense of self esteem and accomplishment is more important.

Tomorrow we are puttering around and hopefully getting on bathing suits and playing in some sand. I have some grown up paperwork to do which always seems to take the entire day so I need some way of making sure that doesn't happen. Naptime is plenty of time to work on my to do list and this is a vacation for my girls and I need to clear my schedule and hang out with them! We have a playground right up the street and the beach is an equally short walk in the other direction so let's put on some flip flops and sun hats and have fun.

Hope everyone else is having a nice Mem. Day holiday as well.

P.S. I got three more tomato seedlings from Clagett Farm and want to put here that they are Roma tomatoes so I don't forget. Paste tomatoes will be good for the pizza garden, for saucemaking. I am also putting some sweet little yellow cherry tomatoes, some big beefy slicing tomatoes, and some Black Prince heirloom tomatoes for variety. I got permission to build an herb spiral (from Spring: Nature Activities with Children) with my F&G class so that will look lovely in the center of the circular garden.