Tuesday Tea

Actually, I'm waiting for some to warm up, so I can sip it and browse lazily for a few minutes before plunging into the day's work. Today Virginia wants to make some cookies, and that is good, because we really need to hurry up with the rest of the packages we want to send. And I've got to make some decent meals today. The past couple of days I've been either hiking or grocery shopping and too tired to cook afterwards. I don't mind grazing on seeds, nuts, fruits, salad and cereal, but a certain husband needs me to put a balanced meal before him. I guess he wasn't descended from the hunter/gatherers, hee hee.

I've actually found a few quick crochet projects for the kids so I'll have something for them on Christmas. I've already made Reuben a little elephant, it just needs eyes and it'll be done. I'm hoping to make a bunny for Virginia and a doll for Miriam. I found these cute toys on www.lionbrandyarn.com. They have a whole catalog of free patterns.

Reuben is growing so fast and seems so grown up now. His personality is beginning to assert itself, he is still as happy as ever, but I can tell he is strong willed like Virginia, and doesn't like to be held back. I treasure the times he falls asleep nursing, because most of the time he wants to get a'going when he's done. There is so much to be discovered and tasted! He is pulling himself up to his knees now, and managed to get both hands up to the coffee table so he could grab a crayon there yesterday.

Virginia is learning her letters quickly now, and is getting good at writing them too. She also has wonderful comprehension, something she's always had, yet she surprises me sometimes with the things she remembers and can describe in her own words.

Miriam is a little clown and likes to pretend she is a monkey and chase her sister around. She is learning lots too and loves to draw- on everything! She also loves to cut things with scissors, including her hair, sigh. She sometimes joins in with Virginia's school sessions with Papa after work. It is so cute to hear them sing the ABC's. Luke will sing very slowly and the girls will join in with a very loud monotone and repeat each letter, or else quickly add the next one if they know it. Virginia can do it all by herself now, but Miriam usually gets lost in the middle.

We all went for a hike in the woods on Sunday with our neighbor Paul. I had found some quartz crystals a few weeks ago and he was interested in looking for some. He collects rocks, as well as just about everything else- big surprise. The girls had a good time finding them for him, and filling their own pockets, too. We had to hack our way through with machetes part of the way, so the going was a little slow, but it was fun. We also saw all kinds of animal tracks, as well as interesting rocks, in the hardened mud trail left by loggers and erosion. On the way back, we stopped by an old graveyard, which the loggers left undisturbed. There are a couple rows of graves, but only one headstone is readable, with initials and a date (early 1800's) carved in it. None of the stones are dressed, they look like natural slabs of local rock that had been stuck vertically into the ground. One grave, a small one, was completely covered with rocks and surrounded by small, jagged, flat stones, set upright along the edge.

We went to the library last Wednesday and I got the last Harry Potter book. Yay! I started it as soon as we got home and read it every chance I got next day. I stayed up until 2:30 next morning to finish it. I was rather sorry that the adventures were over, it was quite a thrill, and of course, I had to come back down to earth and catch up on everything I let slide, hee hee, like the dishes. Didn't take too long, though. Well, I'd better go. Reuben woke up and is tired of playing in his crib. He's probably poopy too.