Yesterday we found out that Daddy has to go to San Antonio on Monday. It is a trip where he can take one of the children with him, as he has one meeting only a couple hours in length, at a child friendly place. Hurrah! What a special treat. It is Toby’s turn to go. Thankfully, tomorrow is library day. For we will surely want to do some reading on Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, in case they get to go to some museums (maybe even the Alamo!).
We had a lovely time at our friend’s house. We ate and talked and walked. I went out in the field and enjoyed the purple coneflowers, native wildflowers that they have reintroduced.
Our hostess dug up a chocolate mint plant from her garden and gave it to me. I’ve put it in a planter on our front step, and am very much hoping it makes it. A touch of fresh mint has so many uses!
The children discovered some ripe blackberries and blackcaps, and joyously devoured them, unmindful of thorns and poison ivy. Moriah took her new notebook on our little walk, and sketched the blackberry bush.
Postscript: To everyone’s relief, we did not have to use the plantain leaves.
The three older children all did multiplication for their math this morning. Moriah had an exciting experience wherein she discovered a pattern in the answers for the 8 times tables. By adding the numerals of the answer together, the numbers decline from 8 to 4, and then again from 12 to 8. She is trying to wrap her mind around this, and visibly thrilled with the intricacies of life that are out there to discover.
Moriah has had two ballet classes this week, one a makeup class for the one she missed while we were traveling last week. (Samuel was a trifle confused as to why she was taking a makeup class when she doesn’t even wear makeup, but I think we cleared that up adequately). Her wonderful ballet teacher left abruptly 4 weeks ago, and since then there have been a series of substitutes, a different one every week. The one this week gave out stickers, a practice much more commonly seen in the Pre Dance classes, not in Ballet 2! It is interesting that the sticker exhorts (nay commands!) one to protect one’s voice. The full impact of the sticker cannot be enjoyed fully online however, as in real life it is a scratch and sniff sticker which smells like strawberries. Sometimes life is surreal.
I think we will be tranferring Moriah to a different Ballet 2 class which has a different wonderful teacher and which will give her some continuity. Though she probably won’t get commanding strawberry scratch and sniff stickers.
We are heading out to a friends house for lunch. They live on a piece of property, so the children are looking forward to having some room to run around with fellow little people. And of course, visit the chickens and geese. Moriah is preparing by gathering an envelope full of broad leaf plantain leaves from the back yard. She learned from Aunt Donna during our recent visit, that these can be chewed and placed on wasp or bee stings to alleviate pain and swelling. It never hurts to be prepared.
Some thought it was a chocolate chip cookie, others that it was a film reel. But that strange sign after “Dear second” in the blog post two down, I have on good authority, is an orange. They note was from “Mastor Orange” to his second in command. Doesn’t it all make sense now?