Tuesday

Ed rumbled around early in the morning (Or was it night still?), bringing the cat into the bedroom with him ("I can't have him scratch at the door! He's lonely!"), then Snowdrop's watch, left behind yesterday during her change to ballet clothes, began ringing (first a "wake up" call, then a "get going" message) - guys, cats and watches, all conspiring to get me up and out to the barn just before sunrise.

To add insult to injury, Ed then had to leave for an early morning eye check, so breakfast was like this:

Alone again, naturally.

We, of course, need rain. And at noon, it does finally, at long last, rain. For two minutes. Lightly. That kind of shower just irritates the animals. It does nothing for the soil and the plants trying to grow in it. 

Well, what are you going to do. It's pretty outside. I'll grant it that.

I pick up the kids today and after days of indulging them with a drive up to Culver's for their french fries, I finally hit the brakes on that one. Yes, they get healthier foods once at the farmhouse, but must that first pang of hunger be treated with utter junk? Oh, but they are hard to refuse! Especially since we pass Culver's on the drive home. But today I stand firm. SO firm! Um, we do stop for ice cream at Tipi's instead.

The farmhouse visit is a tiny bit shorter because I need to get the kids back home and indeed, I need to be there with them, because it is my task to pack the older girl for her trip tomorrow. (Otherwise there's not enough of one thing and too much of another in her suitcase. Or, that's my prediction.)

We pack, I take her suitcase with me and drive home.

Home. How Ed and I love our home! Even as he is sending emails to various boat captains to potentially join their crew on a sailing gig and I'm printing out boarding passes for my own flight out tomorrow. It's difficult to explain why things pull at us in the way that they do, and which ones we resist and which ones, in the end, we indulge. But to be clear -- we both love with a fierce passion our time at home together. 

Our evening. On the couch. With reheated chicken soup, a square or two of chocolate. And so much love...