27 MAY 26

School’s already been out nearly a week... the ceremonial math workbook burning has also been completed...

And yesterday’s first trip to the creek for the summer was successful for both not-so-tot tots... lazily floating in their giant pink donut inner tubes down crystal waters while I dig up more creek gleanings... including about half a 105 year-old porcelain plate manufactured in Ohio...

When we return with the kids sugared up on chocolate shakes and vanilla cones... Puck just looks at the webbed plate fragment then back at me... “You know this is the same as someone looking through the contents of your kitchen 500 years from now and being amazed by it”...

Meanwhile the animals have also been busy... Crackers the cat has turned up again... from where no one quite knows...

And the dog has found a friend across the hedge... there are now daily Old West showdowns between the fat yellow mutt and her much smaller yip-yip something-or-other canine protagonist who seems to think our front yard is also his... the barking is exhaustive and yet amusing...

And now it’s Wednesday morning and Oxbear has discovered the alphabet Sharpied on the floor under our bed... the “G” and “N” conspicuously missing... it isn’t dated and no one’s claiming authorship…

And Puck is prepping for a camping trip with friends...

And Patience is asking for buttermilk to make more homemade biscuits as “Nana” taught her...

And of course Yali is walking around with tremendous fake blood claw slashes across his chest for more battle reenactment in the yard...