weekend update

This weekend has turned out rather busy, but fun. S. and K. and I went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant on Friday night to celebrate S.'s birthday and then we girls walked around Salem and found a bookstore where all the books were half the cover price. And if you bought 4 books you got one free. So I got 5 books for 17 dollars! It made me so happy. This bookstore was literally just stacks of books from floor to ceiling with little aisles to walk in between the stacks. As I walked in, a voice from behind a wall of books called out "everything is half off." I found myself spinning in circles looking everywhere for the owner of the voice, but all I saw was books.

I got Moby Dick, A Very Long Engagement, Mansfield Park, and a book titled The Tin Drum that I'd never heard of before but that K. and 2 of the bookstore voices all said is one of the great works of literature. And I got "Olivia" for Ella.

Saturday we went out to breakfast. Then I went and got a haircut. Probably the most stylish haircut I've had in the past few years. It's much more angled than usual, so the front is still chin-length, but the back goes up pretty high. I feel very chic. I was worried if I could make it look good at home without all of my hair stylist's special foams and brushes and hot irons, but today I just washed it and let it dry and then went through high humidity and wind and sweat, etc., and j. and I both agree it still looks good. So I'm very happy with it.

Elenora had a very random episode of playing during her entire nap yesterday (she always sleeps from 1-3). She finally fell asleep around 2:45 pm and we woke her up at 4 pm because we had been invited to one of J.'s high school friends' houses for a pool party and barbeque. S. and Aurora were there, too. Ella was so cute in the car on our way; she had a clover flower in her hand and she said "give the clover flower to Rora." Then when we got there she did indeed take it upon herself to give Aurora the flower. It was so sweet to see her take the initiative of doing that. J. took her swimming in the pool, and even though it was fairly cold she really enjoyed it. Then she was so much fun entertaining everyone with all of her talking.

Today we had planned on going to a first birthday party for Nathan, but the party was scheduled for 1-4 in NH, and it was too difficult since we were still catching Ella up on her sleep from yesterday. So instead we went to the Art in the Park festival downtown before her nap and went to the beach later. I found some gorgeous birthday presents for her at the park. I bought a child's quilt from the woman who had made it, and some doll clothes that were made by a local woman.

We've stopped the house hunting. We still get an email every day with what is on the market, but nothing has come on the market in our range lately, so we're just enjoying things.

This week I got a ton of stuff from the CSA! Broccoli, huge green peas in the pods that Ella liked to eat straight from the shell, arugula, salad greens, a head of lettuce, dill, parsley, potatoes, zucchini, summer squash, and swiss chard. Momby is gone to camp meeting so I have to use all of both of our shares for last week and this (we usually split the produce). So I made goulash with a lot of the veggies and sauteed the zucchini and summer squash with some onion and parsley as a side dish (thanks mom for making that for me all during my childhood...yummy!). I have a great zucchini/potato pancake recipe that I'd planned on using, but then I used the potatoes and zucchini in other ways. I also have plans for a zucchini bread, but I have to get my mom's recipe for that (hint, hint, mom).

this morning during breakfast ella noticed an easter egg sticker that we'd stuck on her cheerios box and i asked her "ella, what did Jesus do on easter?" I was hoping that maybe she'd remember that we'd drilled her to say "he arose" back during easter time, but without missing a beat she said "died on a cross." i was really honestly shocked that she would answer like that (please don't judge her religious education by my shock!) and so i asked her "what else did Jesus do on easter?" and she said "rose up from the dead."

this girl is a genius. really. i don't know how she knows all the stuff she knows. it's like she was born knowing things. there are times when she asks for books by title, and i think "when do i ever read her the actual title of the book???" and i wonder if she somehow can read already.

her favorite books right now are "best friends for frances" and a book by my aunt titled "where do little girls grow?"

okay. that's enough catching up for now.