This Week at Our House # 24

It has been a cool and rainy June. The state of the world continues to deteriorate. A friend in the UK was telling me about the riots there. She wrote:

"There is so much rioting, Diane, it is horrific. The blacks and whites are rioting together and against each other, the right wing "national front" are fighting against black people, statues are being torn down and no one is caring at all about the virus and socially distancing to keep the country safe. It is petrifying. Then I saw on the news today that one of our most popular department stores has opened its stores this morning, nationwide, for the first time in March and people were queuing since seven this morning to get in - and I don't understand that. I just don't understand how they can find shopping so important  "
Another friend in Australia said that there's rioting there. I know there's been some in Mexico too. I feel like the rioting is more contagious than the corona virus.


Luckily, it continues to be peaceful where we live, but it seems that could change at a moment's notice.


Again it rained a lot this week. Long and hard. One night, I woke up, worried for the kittens. John ran out in the rain and brought in the kittens and their mother. He grabbed a card board box for them, and then came back to bed.

We have not had a big rain since I fixed the drainage problems in my garden. A few weeks ago, my garden completely flooded. I've spent the last two weeks hilling up the plants and digging trenches to direct the flow of the water. My garden has mostly managed well with all f the rain.  All of the plants look healthier. than they did after the first flooding week.

I lost 12 tomato plants with that first flood,  but I have 6 very healthy plants in my kitchen garden. Those six have grown to the size of a large bush. I did some reading, and found that I can grow new tomato plants from clippings from older plants. I bought some root stimulating hormone and planted clippings from tomatoes, basil, rosemary, peppermint and mint. It's been 6 days and they are still alive. Now I will see if they can live through so much rain.

We went to the beach again on Monday. The water was beautiful. I took each of the middle kids out and gave them a swim lesson and told them how to get out of a rip tide. Rachel, Anya, and Joseph did very well. Josh was stiff and scared but interested. Arwen was scared but wanted to try it more.

Sam still won't go into the water at all. But he's a little more adventurous playing close to the shore. Gideon is afraid if we take him out into the water, but he likes to play where the water flows up over his feet.

One night after Arwen was sent to bed, she did not go to sleep and when asked she replied, "There is this dream that I hate and I stay awake from it. It even has my favorite animal in it and it's EVIL." We laughed. Her use of language is so unique. "I stay awake from it". We inquired further about the dream too. She said that on windows with no curtains eagles were attacking, flying through the glass and even attacking people. Eagles happen to be her favorite animals. She sleeps every night, though, and does not have night terrors.

Suzy's excited for her upcoming birthday. She knows the date. Knows that it is her grandma's birthday, and likes that she will be six.

I said to Rachel, "When you grow up to be small..." She stared me down and said, "Rachel likes being little."

And for one last thing. I got this funny email from Ruth last night:

At 2am Kate started really craving her chili with fries. Rachel
thought the idea was awesome so she said she would make them for Kate.
Kate said that would be too much work. Rachel then said that she would
only cut two potatoes so it would be quick, and quickly left for the
kitchen. Kate had an inward battle for about 2 minutes about whether
it was okay or not. I told Kate she had two options 1) go stop Rachel
or 2) go help Rachel, and if she helped her to add a third potato as a
peace offering to dad. Kate then realized fries took an hour to cook!
Unless fried. Anya went to tell Rachel about the time issue and
returned saying Johnny said he would play a video game with Rachel. Kate
worried if she would be up in an hour but she really wanted canned
chili and fries (the request got shrunk). Johnny came to ask if he had
to stay up with Rachel. We of course said no. Johnny suggested a
timer. Kate battled out again whether she would even be up in an hour,
if this was okay to do, but she really wanted fries (so much that she
never left her bed to even attempt to stop Rachel). Johnny solved the
issue by asking Dad if Rachel could make the fries and Dad put an end
to it.
Rachel then came back into the room eating something crunchy.
Kate worried said, "Rachel, you don't have to eat the raw potato."
Rachel proceeds to hold up an apple core.
She then tells Kate the sliced potatoes were on the counter and Kate
had her put the raw potatoes in the fridge.
Rachel's reason for doing this for Kate (Kate asked because she
genuinely thought Rachel might be tricking her): "It sounded
awesome!!! .... well I kinda wanted to."


"What if Rachel falls asleep?!"
"Then hopefully we won't have crisps in the morning."

I slept peacefully through all of this. And now, Monday morning, they're all still sleeping after 10am, and I am thankful it's summer vacation.