Day Five: Kasha Is Weird, Brownies Are Delicious

Slightly less rainy today. Cool, but warm enough to work outside. Today's report is going to be shorter--I'm tired!

We started out the morning with hot cocoa and chocolate chip pancakes. The kids were very emotional right from the start, waking up fighting and crying. I figured chocolate would solve this, but when William's cocoa was too hot it was yet another tragedy. Life is hard. 

For some reason, Taiya decided she wanted to go through all her clothes and sort them out, so she pulled them all out of her dresser and piled them on the floor. We filled a basket with things that didn't fit or that she didn't like, then folded everything she wanted to keep and put it away. This is the kind of thing I've been wanting to do for months, but since it was her idea it all went smoothly and she was thrilled with the results. 

One of Jeremy's co-workers came over to work outside (keeping at least six feet away from each other) on building some cedar raised beds for various locations. I worked on clearing more brush from the playhouse area while the kids watched "Dr. Binocs" shows. They learned why we have bad dreams, who invented chocolate, and more about dinosaurs. And also how to skip ads on YouTube. 

For lunch I roasted two beets that were getting a little soft, and cooked the last half-cup of kasha I've had on hand for years. Kasha is weird, but with cheddar, beets, and sriracha on top it was actually quite tasty. 

For our afternoon adventure, Taiya went to the farm with Jeremy while William and I went to the creek. With all the rain we've been getting it had turned from a calm meander to rushing waves. We threw sticks and watched them get pulled into the white water. I stayed close to William--Captain William, rather, since we were playing pirate by this point--to make sure he didn't get too close to the edge on the slippery rocks and fall in. We spent a good long while finding sticks, throwing them in, finding mud, throwing it at rocks, finding rocks, throwing them in... basically a child's dream. 

We didn't get a chance to plant the fish and the sunflower seeds, since it was cold and the soil was saturated. I think we still have it in a bucket on the porch though, so there's still time! It'll be nice and ripe by the time we get to it. 

For dinner, Jeremy made roasted potatoes, hamburgers, and acorn squash. I made brownies for dessert. The kids watched Frozen 2 again after dinner, and Jeremy and I sat and talked about how things are going, and how best to organize our days going forward. With one week behind us, we can see we need just a little more structure while still allowing freedom within that structure. But tomorrow is the weekend, so, structure be damned. We all need a break.