Thomas, the university lecturer

I am afraid there aren't any photos to go with this, since I was supposed to be teaching the class. Thomas came along for the hour and entertained my students with his arithmetic skills and map-drawing.

He still says he wants to be a footballer when he grows up, though.

Castlerigg

We took Catherine to Castlerigg today. She has the better photos, of course--stay tuned for those.

Catherine wins the prize for 'first friend to visit', and we are very pleased to have her. Anna, Thomas and Iain have a week off school and we intend to take in all the local sights. at least all those that are open in Feburary. So today it was a short trip to the Lakes, tomorrow we'll explore locally and have enchiladas (thanks to the green salsa freshly imported from the US).

I am glad to have most of the week off, as well. I have a couple of commitments related to work and church, but for the most part will be spending the days playing with the kids and one of our very favorite people. The first half of Epiphany term was exhausting and so busy I haven't had time even to update the blog to say how swamped I've been. I continue to enjoy the work, though, and the kids are happy in their respective schools.

Anna has had her first annual review (here it is called something different, but is the equivalent of an IEP meeting in the US, for those who know about that sort of thing). Looks like she will remain at the special school here for the time being. She continues to learn and grow, and has begun to recognize letters and words. She isn't always accurate, but she goes through the motions of sounding out words--and we are thrilled.

looking forward to a restful and fun week!!

Anna is chillin'

We have spent many lovely afternoons with our friends in Lanchester. Anna, Thomas and Iain play happily with the two girls, ages 3 and 5, and the five children have the sorts of disputes kids only have once they're familiar with one another. Treating each other like siblings isn't always a good thing!

But here Anna is just enjoying the warmth of the room and the pleasantness of the setting--and displays perfectly the way we all feel when we spend time with them!

The miracle of the loaves

I have no idea what possessed me to make biga (non-sourdough starter--check out the Il Fornaio baking book) yesterday, but when it started taking over the refrigerator, I had to do something. After all, the fridge is not that big. Time to bake some bread.

This is a project Thomas enjoys. I knew that already. For a change, I thought I'd try doing it at the dining room table, so I could get everybody involved. And--wonder of wonders!--it worked. Apart from Iain eating the flour (go figure), that is. All three kids really liked playing with the dough and occasionally observing that I was doing something rather different with it. (It's called 'kneading', kids.) Anna copied me for a while, then seemed to think that shaping the dough would be more interesting. Hey, whatever. As long as you're happy.

And they were happy. Lewis and Tommy talked about Cassian across the table while I kneaded and the kids played. More than twenty minutes of sheer domestic bliss.

All it took was a bag of flour and the willingness to see it spread liberally around the dining room.

Snow day 3

It sounds like a sequel with a tired plot, but we managed to do something new. Iain is standing in the foundation of a snow fort, which we're building today. Amazing--we've never seen this much snow before!

Last year, when we were planning for the move to Durham, Thomas remarked that he wanted to move to England. Why? I asked. 'Because it snows there,' was the reply. And here we were worried that we might not get much snow this winter. Durham usually gets a bit, probably more than Atlanta, but not usually enough to build a good snowman (or snow-woman, if you prefer). Needless to say, Thomas has enjoyed himself thoroughly in the 6-8 inches of snow we've had over the past 3 weeks.

Everyone's best guess is that schools will be closed again tomorrow. Maybe we'll finish the snow fort and pretend we're on the ice planet, Hoth. If only we could get some Ton-tons...

still more snow

Anna, Thomas and Iain were all home again today. Most likely they will be tomorrow as well. That's bad news for parents, of course, who should be back to work (and hard at work); it is good news for the kids, who will probably be treated to sledding (or sledging, as the locals call it) if this keeps up. Eventually, one just has to give up being frustrated at the situation and accept the snow days.

I don't think we're there yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Snow days

Durham, England is slightly better prepared for snow than Atlanta. But that's not saying much. The news of the day is that Anna's school bus (a minibus hired from a taxi company) wasn't running today: the bus driver called just after Lewis left with Thomas and Iain to say that the smaller roads hadn't been gritted, the bus was having trouble getting around, and so it seemed unsafe to proceed.

Not again! Anna finally got to school (don't ask--Lewis doesn't want to see the inside of a car again for a while) and we got to work around 10; left just after 2 because my office was freezing and Lewis was picking up Anna at 3 and then Thomas at 3.15.

Some more snow fell this afternoon and he got stuck in it, arriving home just before 5. That's right, 5.

Tomorrow we may just stay home!