Another Lovely Day

I feel like I've been walking all day, but it has been so nice. 

Katherine and I walked Graysen to school from the apartment and then walked back.  After lunch, we walked over to Steller, stopping by the garden to water it.  then we walked to the school to pick up Graysen and walk her home at 3:15.  We just came back to the apartment which is one block instead of five.

I thought ahead enough to remember to take water and a snack for Kate for the garden watering, and she let me get it all done.  Luckily, she has a thing for rocks and is probably naming those.  Emily was afraid the garden had died from lack of water, but it actually looked pretty good.  If you like kale and cabbage and broccoli and brussels sprouts.

Picking carrots.  This may be the best view I have of this yellow dress.  It's the result of Emily going through some old  boxes in the garage.  I made it for Elise, but I feel like she was in first grade or older.  Emily wore it too, and Katherine things it's the best dress ever.  She says she's never taking it off.  It has a cat on it AND pockets.  Trimmed in that 80's calico.

 She picked this pepper too and had a veggie snack while I was getting lunch ready.

 Looks like fall.  Emily pickled the cabbage one night, and Kate loves it.  She ate everything on her plate and wanted peach ice cream afterwards.

First day at Rooster Valley was not what she thought it would be.  Or Mama leaving her there was not what she wanted, because she cried.  She said (proudly) that she cried all day, but her teacher said she didn't.  She perked up when her friend James showed up for afternoon classes.  She played on the playground and sang a song they learned for me today and said she got to be the leader, so I don't think she was crying the whole time.  I asked her if she was going to cry tomorrow, and she said, "Yeah," wearily. 

I found this picture of Grayson with her classroom helper Ms Kim on the Cascade View web page.

She seemed so much older when I picked her up this afternoon.  Chatty, waving to friends, telling us all sorts of things.  One classmate lost her tooth today and got a tooth necklace.  She said, "There was blood," but didn't seem bothered by it.  She said one girl told her she couldn't play with her friend (already it starts), and she said, "At first it hurt my feelings, but then I went and played by myself, and that was more fun." She fell off the balance beam and didn't cry or tell the teacher.  A fifth-grader helped her on the monkey bars and she said thank you.  Just a fountain of information.  She saw her older neighbors after school and enjoyed talking to them.  I had read about other kids her age being cranky and tired, but she doesn't seem to be too bothered by it.  She did tell me this morning, "I threw a fit last night because Mama didn't read the story about the nighttime animals to just me and not Katherine."  

And I'm tired.  End of the week tired and looking forward to having my day to myself tomorrow.  Emily and I thought about meeting in Issaquah to get the stuff for a Halloween project we want to do, but Graysen gets out at 1:20 on Friday, so we won't have a lot of time.  Next week.  I got a chance to sit on the balcony while Kate played today and go through mail and read and work on the crossword puzzle some.  I have new neighbors across the way, a couple from Virginia but originally from New York, who are in my general age group, I think.  PJ and George.  And another couple who moved in below us.  He's Marvin, and they just recently retired and sold their house and downsized.  Really - to a one-bedroom.  That's quite a bit of downsizing.  I haven't met his wife yet.  I did have a conversation with Susan my neighbor across the alley who saw me working in the garage last night and was afraid I was moving.  She asked me if I thought she would get in trouble with all the trees on her balcony.  She had run into a sale at Value Village and got 5 or 6 five-foot artificial plants.  She likes to look out her window and pretend she's in the forest instead of looking at the K on my garage door.  She said she was trying to compete with me, "Little Miss Balcony of the Month with your little hummingbird feeder and birdfeeder and all that cuteness."  Luckily she can't see the dead plants and the bird seed all over the floor.  

I've made it six days of my writing every day, all this stuff that's boring to everyone else but will be so much fun for the girls to read one day.