A simple day

I had several thoughts for what today might look like, but neither of them came to pass.

But the day was quite simply, beautiful.

It was an October day in the Pacific Northwest: rain all the day long.  But it made the day feel so cozy, like you just wanted to sink into it and wrap yourself up in all that it had to offer.

My first thought was that Tirzah and I could go to the pool on Post, the one with the zero depth (is that what it is called?  Where the pool is like the ocean and you can walk into it and it slowly gets deeper and deeper?) and the slides. I called first and sadly, that pool is under renovation.

So our morning was simple yet so absolutely satisfying and sufficient.  Grace.

We read the Bible after each meal.  We read just a short section and then Tirzah loves to flip through the whole of the Bible and look at the pictures, or mainly, look through the pictures in a desperate search for a "neigh".  Today we sat for about 30 minutes, just turning the pages slowly looking for any animal.  I love that though.  I love that I can tell her little bits of the Story as we do a semi "delight-directed study".  She climbs upon my lap and we just sit together, me sipping my second (or third. . .) cup of coffee and she, completely absorbed in the pictures.  Simple.

Next, we dressed up and endured the weather.  It seems that Tirzah doesn't mind at all going in the rain.  She actually loves doning her hat and sometimes even her gloves.  She loves it when we are wearing the same thing: "and here is your vest". . . "Mama!"  . . . "Mama has her vest on too!"  "And here are your tennis shoes". . . "Mama!". . .  and so on.  The world was completely drenched, but I loved listening to the sound of the rain splatter off the leaves and the way the grey sky made the quilt of colors pop.  Beautiful.

We spent the rest of the morning in the kitchen.  Tirzah, on top of the counter, and I right beside.  Instead of making her own dough while we cook, she has taken quite an interest in being the helper for whatever dough I am making.  And what a helper she is, in all things these days.  It is so fun to see her grow in understanding.  I will ask her to go get something, or to put her shoes away in her basket, and she does it!  Quite brilliant, if this Mama can say so!  Like today, after our afternoon tea, she says "away" meaning that the dishes are done and are meant to be thrown away.  She did indeed throw the dishes away, the sweet thing!  So I showed her instead, that she could put the dirty dishes in a drawer so Mama could wash them.  Sweet.

We stayed there in the kitchen, making delicious dough and the last batch of pesto for the season.  We put it right in the freezer and there it will stay until we can make Chicken Pesto Pasta for our Solider once he is home.  Close!

These past two mornings I have been stretching Tirzah's awake time.  In the past 10 days or so she has not gone to sleep when I have laid her down for her morning nap, so I am assuming she is communicating to me that she can stay up a little longer!  Before hand, she was able to stay around 4 hours, the past 2 days I have kept her up for 5, and I really really enjoy that extra time with her, for in it, we eat lunch together.  And since I have never really done that with our daughter (I always ate right after I laid her down and she always had a little bite to eat once she woke), I have found it to be quite lovely.  Special.

The afternoon held a wonderful conversation with my brother, made a delicious smelling fall stew, and even had time to read, just for a moment.  Upon her waking, we had our afternoon tea, vacuumed (every day still for continued flea control!), painted, read my letters from Daniel from our dating days, mod-podged, talked to sweet Hopie and dear Melissa and baby Elias, and shared a meal together.  Nothing too huge, but it felt just right to fill a day with simple activities, just right to fill our home with soul satisfying moments.  Moments that were perfectly provided.