Red Efts (Good WILDLIFE)

It rained a lot overnight, and in the morning, Greta asked if we could take a walk along the road to look for red efts. We saw many--maybe eight or ten--some especially tiny. It's always so satisfying to spot them, little flashes of bright orange among the wet greenery. These are welcome and acceptable forms of WILDLIFE.

It rained for much of the day. After breakfast, the girls and I attempted to do some 3D drawings on graph paper by following along with Howard Lee YouTube videos (these occasionally cross my Facebook timeline and I thought it'd be fun to try). We had modest success. 

We played Chinese Checkers, Pickup Sticks, and Rummikub. We made cookies from a brick (not as good as cookies from a tube) and read Little Women together outside. We read our own books. We ran a mile. The girls did math and Duolingo. After dinner, Andrew made a fire and the girls played with burning sticks.

Also today, Andrew and I gave Farrah a bath outside with the hose, because she was unbearably smelly. I mean, you could smell her from across the room like she was some kind of ungainly, dangerous WILDLIFE. She was not happy about the bath but clearly feels much better now.

Nutmeg escaped her room today, surprising no one. I went to wake Lucia up after Greta and I got back from our walk this morning and found the door ajar, the secondary barrier (a piece of pegboard) fallen over. Nutmeg was nowhere to be found. Andrew and Greta came up to help look and we soon found her in my bedroom, hopping around under the bed. She was not willing to be caught or guided and kept hopping onto an old, toxic mattress under our bed. "Well, good luck with that," Andrew said to me, easing out of the room and back to his coffee. Eventually, she hopped out of our room and back to her room, where I tossed some hay treats to her and closed the door. But for the rest of the day every time I opened the door, there she was, ready to seize any chance to escape again. I'm sure she will.  

What We're Reading

Lucia - I Know What You Did Last Summer

Greta - The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S.

Andrew - Civil War / hay

Margo - Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Read aloud - Little Women