Today's reading

Life is never boring when you have brothers

Broken swords are apparently more fun than unbroken swords.

Mom and the boys at the zoo

Andrew and Jonny in the desert dome














Jonny climbing on the fence














Jeremy and Andrew with the gorillas














Inspecting the map














Taking a water break














So much walking!














The boys














On the lions at the zoo exit

Domestic pursuits

This morning I wrote letters and did school with the boys; both worthy and time consuming projects that occupied most of the morning.

This afternoon I cooked and baked. I started off with fruit salad, because we had a squishy cantaloupe and some grapes in the fridge that needed to be eaten. Then, at Jen's suggestion, we three older kids made two lime meringue pies for the first time ever. That took awhile, but they turned out nicely. I made the filling, Caleb beat and stirred, and Jenni just checked the meringue. After that, because I knew that since we are all going to be gone tomorrow, I made a cake mix for the bag lunches(Dad to work, us girls to the business, and Mom and the boys to the zoo) along with broccoli soup for tomorrow's dinner. I had to boil and puree the broccoli, then put it in the fridge to keep. Then I moved on to tonight's dinner, layered bean dip, making sure that there was enough for Mom to take tomorrow to the zoo. Us girls are having chicken sandwiches for lunch, and Dad will probably take dip too.

Whew! Sometimes my life seems to revolve around food, endlessly eating and preparing and cleaning up, but I really do enjoy cooking. Good thing, I guess, since I'm the cook. Behind every good man is a good cook, you know, and I have five good men in my life.

Other than that, the garbage has been emptied, the dishes are being done, an easter tree picked, our play practiced, and as soon as I get Caleb to set the table I'm going to go catch the news. Hopefully, I will be able to get back into the debate about the Constitution tomorrow. Jen has ballet tonight or I would get started on the good old "Pride and Prejudice" series we checked out from the library.

It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute." -James Madison

We are stuck at home because of another snowstorm. It seemed like a bummer this morning, because I had to stay home again, after being alone with the boys all day yesterday and missing Church and various other social activities in the past few weeks, but I'm over it now. I spent the day being very lazy- I read the books "Fourth Dawn" and "Fifth Seal" by Brock and Bodie Thoene, the fourth and fifth installments of their A.D. Chronicles series. It is a extremely well written and inspirational series and I encourage you all to read it. I also ate chocolate, cut material for a skirt, and made dinner. It was also nice to see Dad again- he's been so busy he hasn't been home much- and Mom told us all about her trip to the dinner theater yesterday. It took about two hours for her to tell us about the trip, her companions on the bus, describe the theater decor and the meal, tell the entire story of the play, and the trip back home. Mom is a good story teller and we girls like to hear every little detail. It's a family tradition to sit and talk in the morning after Bible study, even if we can only talk for fifteen minutes, about what we did the day before and what our plans are for the day ahead.

We probably didn't get more than a few inches here, but the wind is so strong and there are big snowdrifts all over. Schools are all closed tomorrow and the roads will still be perilous so we will probably stay home tomorrow too unless we go in to shovel snow at the business. I know we have nothing to complain about compared to New York- Jen says that they are being punished for having Hillary as a Senator.