I am not doing much all day every day, but I get pretty tired.

Polly and Jim left yesterday morning, after the kids were at school. They drove to Walla Walla, where it would generally be warmer and dryer than Seattle this time of year. Unfortunately, the forecast was for rain. They called last night and arrived safely, and even took a bike ride in the rain. They are staying in a nice little well-appointed apartment, which, thanks to Google, we can actually see (the roof of).

Ray and I hung out here in the morning, bathing and dressing and doing computer stuff. We ate lunch and then walked to Lidet's school (in the rain). We walked with her to Goodwill (in the rain) and I bought another pair of jeans, a warm hoodie, and a winter coat. We also bought a pair of shorts for her, but they are too big. She seemed to enjoy it, spending a lot of time looking at the shoes. Ray dozed in a chair and kept an eye on her while I shopped. Then we walked home (uphill) in the rain. We had three umbrellas and it was not bitter cold. When we got home, we changed into dry clothes and started cooking. Ray worked on his computer.

I made onion-potato soup (a little too oniony and not hearty enough, imho) and bean and tomato salad (good but not appealing to kids) and cheesecake bars (a big hit with the kids, a little bland for my taste). Lidet helped a lot, and she even put away some of the clean dishes for me. Ray walked down to get Nate at 3; the walk back up was pretty hard. He played Spider on the kitchen island while we cooked. They ate lots of my homemade bread. We ate a little after 5, as a way of forestalling the constant demands for cheesecake bars.

Sometimes, when Lidet and Nate have down time, they run and scream and rough-house, which is a little loud, but I guess perfectly good entertainment for them. They did some of that after supper, as well as playing on the iPad, looking at places on Google, for instance. We watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, except I fell asleep, leaving Ray to put the children to bed.

We are in Polly's room now, a beautiful room with lots of windows--and no shades. This gives a lovely view, looking down on the lights of Seattle, but it gets light here very early these days, close to the summer solstice. I woke up at 4, partly becuase of the light, and partly because I am not completely on Seattle time yet.

I'm wearing my new jeans and hoodie and thinking about what to cook today and what to do. I just heard Nate's feet hit the floor--he's in the top bunk. It's early for him to get up; school doesn't start for 2 or 3 hours.