06 JUL 25
Up late in the night with Yali... ear pain... in the morning light blood emitting from the ear cavity but the pain has receded... he's eager for church and hits the shower with no cajoling...
Waiting for Bible study to begin where Oxbear is filling his first of three cups of coffee at the kitchenette talking with the Hungarian Renaissance man about his expert stonemason (more like stone art) skills... his wife is also principal chair for the St. Louis Symphony... and he's into kayaking and flying giant kites and archery...
An hour later Yali and Patience walk out of Sunday School into a hallway filled with parents... the kids are carrying brown paper bags filled with Sunday School papers and projects... Patience turns around to unexpectedly whack Yali in the face with her bag as Yali laughs... “I'M NOT A FLY!”... we take our circus home...
Back for a few hours... Yali and Patience have been offered a paid job by Oxbear to bag up all the clipped and dried honeysuckle branches layering the perimeter of the yard...
...and Puck starts barking about theology in the living room for about an hour before he works another shift at the store...
...while Oxbear is out getting yard waste bags and Hershey's bars before we drive over to St. Charles County...
It's a quiet couple of hours at the Big House with just "Grandma" and Francis and S... trail mix and sitting on the porch waiting for the storm to push in... lightning crack thunder rumble and a soft rain... “Grandma” finds a green tree frog hiding under a pillow on the porch furniture... Yali brings him out to play... his sticky little pads crawling all over Yali's back...
Home again... still rain... while Oxbear leaves to meet a friend... the kids and I get out the CLUE board where Puck has previously confiscated the tiny revolver and Yali has painted “blood” on the tiny knife...
An hour later... drip drip through gold light between patches of storm predicted for the week...
Get back to the kitchen for always always always more dishes to see what the kids have left out all over the counters this time...
- package of tortillas
- half a bottle of Mod Podge
- whole wrapped stick of butter
- bottle of lava orange acrylic paint
- empty wrapper for a Korean disposable razor
- unicorn rubber duck