I just finished making crayon cookies with the kids. We took a good number of our old broken crayons and put them into a muffin tin and melted them into "cookies". They're really pretty. I took a skewer and made some swirls in them to make them more interesting. I can't imagine how well they're going to color. But it was fun to make them anyway. We had to put them in the freezer to pop them out of the muffin cups, otherwise they would have been hopelessly stuck.
The kids and Hadley are on the trampoline with the sprinkler. Little Mark doesn't like jumping, but Max relishes any time the girls allow him to play with them. They usually shun him as if he were pock-marked and diseased. Right now he's keeping up pretty well. He calls them "Angelica," "Camille" or whatever other play-name they demand of him, and he, in turn lets them call him "Slam."
I trimmed back my zinnias this morning. I think zinnias are the best suited to my life right now. They bloom into big, colorful, and hearty flowers that don't require much more than weekly watering. To add interest, the colors seem to vary within each plant: you can get hot pink and light pink from the same plant; orange and deep red. They're quite beautiful, I think. One of the big deep red blooms has petals seemingly delicate, but feel as coarse as tree leaves. The big pink ones have soft petals, but stand up to the most intense heat without withering or turning brown.
We just began the Exodus section of our History Omnibus. Our quick review of the previous section (Genesis) began with my asking Rose to tell me what God created in the six days. Her excuse, which was to end by her telling me she didn't have them all memorized, began this way: "I know He created a lot of stuff..." At which point I groaned and collapsed with the kind of exasperation known only to parents and teachers.
