River deltas

When we went out to check on our rain gauge yesterday we found no rain in it. None!

That's a mistake not likely to happen again for about a week. We got so much rain today that when we went to check it this afternoon, taking advantage of sunshine that decided to come late for today's party, not until about five, I couldn't take a picture because I was too busy holding my pants up to keep them out of the water oozing around my feet in our lawn. I shudder to think (remember) what it was like before we did all that work in the backyard and rerouted the drainage. Calvin tells me it might have been like a big river delta and I think he might actually be a bit disappointed by our new and improved drainage.

Jon's dad tells me that this spring has been significantly wetter than usual, and our neighbor, the one with the white fence that works so well in so many of our garden pictures, tells me that it is supposed to remain cooler and wetter than usual right up through June. To me this is the slayer of hope. Every week I click that 10-day outlook button on the weather page hoping to see at least some numbers in the 70s in the near future. Now I guess I can stop clicking, then if we do get some decent weather it will be like a fantastic surprise.

Today we woke up to skies so dismal that we had to turn lights on in the house. We read books to each other and played a newish (to us) game called Where in the World, but artificial light in the morning is depressing, so we packed up and headed out to run our weekly errands. A pharmacy and two grocery stores later we had a week's worth of food and supplies and the rain had just stopped and no lights were needed in the house. We scanned and stored our purchases, practiced piano, played with Legos, Playmobil, and dinosaurs, and marked Calvin's favorite volcanoes on a world map (yes, I said favorite volcanoes). I ran, Calvin read Nate the Great in a weak afternoon light. Then two hours later the sun actually came out and we braved the squishy yard (the one Calvin thinks might have been like a river delta had we not broken our backs in hours of labor last summer) to read the rain gauge.

Deja vu all over again

They promised us sixty degrees today. Sixty! And it may actually have been a balmy sixty when I went to the library just before eleven this morning, but it was a nippy fifty when we went out to the store just two hours later, and much chillier low forties by dinner. Bah. Calvin had wanted to walk in the field today, and I think we would have done it if it hadn't been damp on top of cold. That phrase gives me a strong and unfortunate feeling of deja vu. He decided, as we came home from the store, that he'd rather stay in and play games. We played Mammoth Hunt, with help from Cookie and Torso Boy, and we also tried our hands at Connect Four.

Piano, Oz, chopping carrots for dinner (soup, which actually turned out to compliment the weather nicely), taking turns reading to each other, quiet, individual play and reading—cold, wet days with tempestuous winds are good for something. And with his bosses out of town, Jon worked from home today. Since we have commandeered the office when he works from home he usually does so at the kitchen table, making him central to all of our goings on. We do a pretty good job of ignoring his existence while he's working, but I left Calvin to draw quietly across from him when I went to the library and he spent the entire hour I was gone doing just that. When I came home he presented me with a cornucopia of castle drawings. I don't have pictures of them yet, but they are coming.

After dinner tonight, while we still sat at the table, I asked Calvin to read to us. He skipped off to select his own book from the other room and came back with the Giving Tree and read it to us, fluently and with feeling, while we reclined in our dining chairs. Then we went on with the rest of the evening. The surprise of hearing him read like that is beginning to wear off. I could get used to this autodidactic nature of his.

The soul of Sunday—family

A rare treat. Jon, who usually teaches (piano) at the institute on Sunday afternoons was with us all day today. We soaked up cuddles in the morning, snow play at noon, errands after lunch, games at tea time, live music during quiet time, and a coincidentally timed extended family dinner in the evening. Family, family, and more family, and still there is never enough. Every Sunday could be like this, please, although in the future I would add more sun.

Camp

Qwirkle

Spring bird houses to decorate our table

Charley Harper on the iPad

Slinky

Sunday is really the end of the week

Because I have a hard time seeing any day as lazy as our Sunday being the jumping off point for anything.

It's still the weekend (see, not a new week) so we're still soaking up daddy time around here. Piano lessons for both of us learners. Calvin has graduated to the next book so he's on a roll right now. He learned a piece by Haydn today so it was an all Haydn all afternoon kind of day (it's sad, really, that the sound of our day doesn't come across in the photos we share).

There was a lot of Lego time, and a lot of game time, too (mancala, Qwirkle, and the Mammoth Hunt, altered a bit for Calvin's skill level).

We started looking through our books on Africa and did some related coloring.

We had a fire, we had hot chocolote, we read books, we ate comfort soup for dinner. What we didn't do was get dressed. And now that we're rested and relaxed, we're ready to start a new week. Tomorrow.

Goodbye Lighthouse Cafe

We got up kind of early this morning, or actually not got up early but got dressed earlier than usual (for a Saturday) in order to have breakfast one last time at our local cafe.

I don't know yet what we'll do for our morning meal on book sale days when I have to be at the library before 8:30. Those were the days when we would enjoy coffee and breakfast as a family, along with all the older gentlemen who have probably been doing this for years, sitting amongst the drawings and pictures of lighthouses from around the world. The U.S.? Maybe even Michigan. I don't know, but they had lighthouses, and big fishtanks, and unlimited coffee, and pancakes no better than I could have made at home but just as laden with pecans and without the preparation or the dirty dishes to clean after. We will miss them.

We had nothing, absolutely nothing, on our schedule for this weekend, and that's exactly why we were busy all morning, not making it home (and back into our pajamas) until lunchtime. That was one breakfast and two library trips later. We came home lugging an armload of books about Africa, two videos about Africa, and the next Oz book, plus two Jim Arnosky books that we scored at the Ann Arbor Library book sale. I love that their sale is open every weekend, but visiting regularly could be a dangerous proposition.

I'm pretty sure the highlight of the day was becoming pawns in the afternoon. The pawns in chess, after all, are meant as foot soldiers or pikemen. After making shields and swords Jon and Calvin chased each other around the house while the dogs and I took refuge in the corner.

The boys played Qwirkle. Saturdays for us are a lot about soaking up daddy time.

And we watched a video of four different Anansi tales. For doing nothing it was a full and wonderful Saturday. Relaxing, enjoyable. Especially because there is a Sunday to follow it.