Summer: Sun. 7/5 (NH)

Quiet New Hampshire-y day. Started at the pond. Greta caught frogs and the kids swam. We put up the hammocks and did lots of reading. I read Harry Potter while the kids ate candy. Greta rode her bike up and down the road while Andrew ran.

There was a little trouble when Greta, on her bike ride, discovered a dead mouse in the road. She was very very upset and wanted to bury it, make a gravestone, etc. Andrew buried it by the road and put some rocks on top, etching one of the stones according to Greta's instructions: BABY MOUSE. We took several walks past the grave. We're going to add some painted stones and flowers to it in the days to come.

Just before dinner, there was a big downpour, and when it ended there was a double rainbow. The lower rainbow stretched across the whole sky, and we could see its entire arc. It was really vivid, and at the bottom were double lines of blue and purple--red orange yellow green blue purple blue purple. My picture doesn't capture the double rainbow and definitely doesn't capture the vivid colors.

Dinner was burgers on the grill, and potato salad. Afterward the kids, Andrew, and Farrah threw the frisbee. Earlier, Andrew tried once again to instill a love of swimming in Farrah and brought her into the pond, but again she skedaddled right out, horrified and unamused, and then hid behind a towel.

Andrew accused me today of "not parenting" and "reading all the time" but that's a load of baloney. What he obviously doesn't understand is that my parenting in New Hampshire IS reading. The kids and I all read in our hammocks for a long period today, and there were two Harry Potter readings during the day, and Lucia and I both read while Greta hunted frogs.

Last night Andrew and I were both woken up in the middle of the night by the clear sound of a creature chewing something near our bed. Crunching something, really, like a nut or a piece of wood. It was either by our bed or right outside the window. We'll never know. Country life!




Comments