G! O! D!

Today the two older girls hung out and painted suncatchers at the Community House in the morning; Becca went with me to do errands. One of our errands was to find a humane catch-and-release mousetrap for Mousie Mouse who moved into our house while I was on my vacation. This is the second humane trap design I've tried and I hope it works because my patience is wearing thin. But I just keep reminding myself of the Buddhist belief that all forms of life are equal. No one is better than any other. This means that, if I wouldn't want the mouse to kill me because it finds me annoying, I have no right to do that to it. The trap is baited with peanut butter so we'll see if anything happens overnight.

Tonight at VBS we were given the task of coming up with a cheer for our group. You know, like cheerleaders do. I was about to start banging my head on the wall when I realized that I had one absent student (which dropped me down to three) and this gave me a brilliant idea! So I had the kids all crouch down and jump up one at a time and yell their assigned letter.

G!

O!

D!

And then I yelled, what's that spell? And the kids are supposed to shout "God!" Simple. 5 year old friendly. Except that when we went to perform it in front of the church I got

G!

O!

D!

"What's that spell?"

And two of them yelled "God" and Leah called out loudly "Jesus!" I thought it was hilarious. Falls under the category of Close Enough, as far as I'm concerned.

The children were talking in the car about whether God was a boy or girl and I was saying that a lot of people think that God is a woman and Becca corrected me, saying that the baby born in the manger was a boy and he was God so God must be a boy. I thought that perhaps the mystery of the Holy Trinity was a little over their heads and probably not something you should shout over your shoulder in a truck while going down Route 2 & 4, so I refrained. It was a good point, after all.

Tomorrow the Comm. House activity is a day of painting with items other than paintbrushes, which is always super-cool. With the morning activities and VBS at night I'm leery of putting anything in to the afternoon timeslot, so we haven't been going to the beach or the pool all week. This is going to be another summer where I get to the end and realize -- AGAIN -- that Natalie still hasn't learned how to swim.

The Duchess Bakes a Cake

Put this in the Berry category:

"She added some eggs, several dozen, well-beaten,
And some left-over pudding that they hadn't eaten.
Bilberries, gooseberries, cranberries, bogberries,
Blackberries, mulberries, burberries, dogberries;
Peppermint, cinnamon, laurel and squill,
Wintergreen, nutmeg, angelica, dill --
Whatever she found she put into the batter,
And what she left out didn't really much matter...."

Peanut Butter and Celery

Teaching your kids to be problem solvers...

So today at lunch (pork and beans, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks with peanut butter) I decided to let the children put the peanut butter on their own celery sticks. I gave each person a butter knife and some celery pieces and handed over the jar of creamy peanut butter. Then I left the room. When I came back I discovered that Leah had used the knife to put peanut butter on her fingers, then was attempting to use her fingers to spread the peanut butter on the celery! If you've ever tried this, you know it doesn't work very well. But I give her credit for

1) not putting her fingers right in the peanut butter (my kids are pretty aware of germs)

and

2) thinking that a flexible digit might fit in the curve of the celery better than a hard flat knife end


I didn't comment but I think that the ensuing mess (and it was especially hard for her to figure out how to get down from the table in order to wash her hands off) may have led her to conclude that the knife might be a better tool for the job.

Today was Water Day which meant water pistols at the Comm House. Last time we went to Water Day my children suffered from a little culture shock. They hadn't seen water pistols before and were completely in the dark about the idea of gun play. Tidewater doesn't allow it, I don't allow it, and they've never seen anyone do it. Once they got over the idea of attacking someone else, the girls really enjoyed it. Today they went right over to the water pistols and dove into the action. I'm still not entirely certain whether I agree with water pistols but it's such a part of childhood that I'm not going to raise a ruckus about it.

Now it's time for naps. I am going to lie down on the sofa, watch My Fair Lady, and read my cookbook collection. I had gotten two heads of fennel at the grocery store so that I could make Cream of Fennel and Pear Soup (from Nicole Routhier's Fruit Cookbook) but the pears went bad so I now need good ideas for Things to Do With Fennel.

Alaska Berries

Got it!

The book I was thinking of is




Of course, another nice book for a berry theme would be

And the Livin' Is Easy

I never saw Porgy and Bess but I know the song (don't we all?) and I love love love this time of year. It's such a wonderful opportunity to be home with my kids.

Saturday after we fixed the toilet successfully, the girls and I went blackberry picking. I was thinking of blackberry stories; the first one that comes to mind being




Also, for berry picking you can't forget




And




Then I went on to think, hmmm, if I was still writing newsletters I could do one called "Berry Berry Quite Contrary" and all these other titles popped into my head.


Strawberries






Blueberries




Gooseberries






Anyone think of any others? I know there's one about a native Alaskan berry (cloud berries, maybe) but I can't think of it now...

Sunday morning we went to church, then hosted a playdate. We had a friend come over and the girls all ran through the sprinkler, got out the sidewalk chalk, had snack (yogurt, pears, grapes) and sat and read stories. My friend and I were chatting and her little one brought over a book and Karen immediately gave that squeal of excitement that you make when you recognize a book from your childhood. You know that feeling of seeing a really good friend all of a sudden? The illustrations are so familiar and so right. The book was One Kitten for Kimby Adelaide Holl and so I promptly gave it to her. I know that feeling all too well and we had never read the book (I got it from the used book store) so I knew the girls wouldn't miss it one jot.

Monday we went to a playdate hosted by someone else. They had one of the those gigantic blow-up water slides, a trampoline, several playhouses and swing sets, etc. Amazing. Plus they have lambs. The girls and I hadn't brought bathing suits because their suits will still wet and cold from the sprinkler-running the day before so I let them go on the water slide fully dressed and then we just stuck their clothes in the dryer and draped them in towels during lunch. I had told my daughters that they couldn't go on the water slide and they were exceedingly polite about it and didn't complain and only after an hour came to me and charmingly asked permission to stick their feet in the wading pool at the bottom of the slide. I gave my permission and then decided, what the heck. When children are polite about things it makes such a difference. If I had had to listen to an hour of whining, there would have been no way I'd reward that kind of behavior with a special treat. Anyway, it all worked out in the end and they absolutely had a ball. Then we had lunch (chicken nuggets, apple chunks with cinnamon, cantaloupe slices, black bean and corn salad, quinoa salad). What a spread. Delicious! From there it was the pediatrician for Natalie's 7 year checkup, since the health insurance has finally been sorted out, and then VBS last night. I am a team leader, taking the 5 year old team around to their stations. This team consists of three boys and Leah. It's quite a nice little group.

Today we are going to Water Day at the Community House.

I love summer!

Fixing the Toilet

Today we fixed the toilet! The toilet in our rental house has been requiring us to hold down the lever and count to 10 or it won't flush. This was fine for a while and we all got used to it, and then the girls started counting to 10 in Spanish for some variety, but still... why not fix it. I talked with a friend to make sure this was something simple that I could do and then I gathered the girls around and told them I was going to give them a lesson on how a toilet works.

I them line up with Leah first, then Natalie in the middle, then Becca on the end. Leah stuck her arm straight out (to be the lever) and held Natalie's hand with the other hand. They kept their hands down. I told Leah that when I flushed the lever (pulled her hand down) she was to raise up the other hand and Natalie's hand with it. Becca was to look for the opportunity and run through the arch they created. Becca was the clean water. So I pulled Leah's outstretched hand down and held it for 10 counts and Becca gleefully ran through. Then we got back into our original positions and I pulled Leah's hand down and then released it quickly, like you would with a regular flush. Becca didn't have time to get through! So I explained to them that that is how a toilet works and then we went and took the lid off the back of the toilet tank. I asked them, does anyone see anything that reminds them of what we talked about? And immediately they pointed out the handle, the lever arm, and the flapper. I flushed it once to show them how the clean water fills up the tank, then I shortened the chain (explaining that now the flapper will lift up high enough for all the water to get out in time) and we flushed it again. Quick and correct. We were all very proud of ourselves.

No more
uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez!

Tennessee

Tonight I am in Tennessee. I drove for 12 hours today, over 750 miles. I should be able to finish up the last leg of my trip tomorrow. The only stop I made (besides getting gas three times and stopping at Whatta-burger in Russellville, AR for some lunch) was to get a birthday card for a friend. I mailed it specifically from Russellville since I think he will get a kick out of receiving a card from a town named after him. Or, rather, he won't notice the postmark at all and I will have wasted an hour of my life. :-)

I am actually starting to get pretty tired of living out of my truck. Today is the first day I thought, it would be nice to have some different clothes. I've been living out of little outfits packed in gallon Ziploc bags. And they are for traveling, so we are not talking High Fashion here. When I walked into the Hilton in downtown Santa Fe, I was wearing the grungy capris that I had worn while wading in the creek in Moab to catch crawdads, a baseball cap, and the fleece pullover from my Admissions Desk uniform at the Calvert Marine Museum. The man behind the counter definitely raised an eyebrow at me. I would also like to do my laundry at someplace other than a laundromat. I also am starting to miss my library, oddly enough. I'd love to sit down and read a book. However, it has been a fantastic trip and I am lucky to have made it such a long distance -- driving solo -- safely. The only time I had a passenger/second driver was the trip from Moab to the Grand Canyon and back. The rest of it I have driven on my own. Today I got pulled over for the first time. This after 5300 miles! I got a warning for following the car in front of me too closely. I was trying to get away from the man behind me who had been bothering me, smiling and waving, and alternating between passing me and then slowing down and following me. He was making me uncomfortable. That's no reason to be unsafe on the road, though, so it was still my fault. Then the man waited for me to catch up to him again after my warning and kept gesticulating. I ignored him and hung out in the slow lane until he got bored. Other than that, I have had no other adventures of the unpleasant kind. I've been very lucky.

Tomorrow I hope to write that I am home safe & sound!