Concentration

The kids and their father arrived yesterday afternoon for a visit, and we dodged in and out of the rain showers, after kids and dogs, until it got dark and we had to come inside to make dinner. I should say the kids and I came inside because Tim and OilMan still went outside to barbecue chicken satay with peanut sauce, and pork tenderloin.

I woke up this morning to the sound of kids and dogs running up and down the hall, and finally got up to another sparkling but chilly morning. Getting two kids and two dogs fed, dressed and out the door is a bit like herding cats, but we arrived at the creek bed in the field just as Dana and Rudy arrived. There is always something for kids to do there, but today's highlight was finding lots of rocks with veins of quartz crystals in them and carrying them back to the house.

Maya and Owen and I spent some time painting after lunch. I caught the concentration in Maya's body language in OilMan's gardening hat as she worked on her painting of an oak tree. I find oak trees extremely difficult to do, and I think that, over all, hers was better than mine. After working on his picture of the tree house on the other side of the fence, for awhile, Owen decided he'd just as soon play in it….