Ruby Falls with Auntie K

Zoë writes: 

My favourite part of Ruby Falls was finally getting to the falls. The falls were beautiful, even more so because of the lights and music put on.

Beautiful Butterflies at Cannonsburgh Village

This morning we took the kids to Cannonsburgh Village, a little tour through history constructed to celebrate the 200th Independence Day back in 1976. It was a pretty neat place to visit, I think! They had all sorts of buildings—a telephone operator's house, a school, a chapel, a blacksmith shop, a mill, and more. They had live chickens. They had checkerboards. They had about a million organs (just about every building had an organ in it, I think). 

For right now, I thought I'd share pictures of the kids by this butterfly wing backdrop:

 

Zoë holding Oaklyn

To Tennessee with Auntie K: In which we explore many playgrounds

While Auntie K is here she wants to take each of the kids on an individual outing. She tried to give Rachel the gift of a mani-pedi when she was out here last time, but Rachel flat-out refused to entertain the thought of allowing a complete stranger to touch her feet. Miriam similarly declined the invitation this trip. But Zoë...is a horse of a different colour. She was quite excited at the prospect of having her nails done. She loved sitting in the massage chairs and being pampered—they even gave her an ice cream cone! 

She came home with lovely sparkly green nails...and a new outfit as well! Auntie K took her on a little shopping spree (and she had the time of her life). They also saw a cute little ghost dress while they were out and picked it up for Phoebe (who won't be going on an individual outing because she's...fussy...but who is very much picking up on the Halloween spirit (something Auntie K also appreciates)). 

Here are those three girls in their new outfits on Sunday (Auntie K found a dress for herself as well):

Pool day

This morning we did some school work while Auntie K went grocery shopping for herself. She has celiac disease and...so we let her be in charge of what she eats. She made shepherd's pie for dinner this evening (for all of us), for example (and it was delicious). 

After lunch we headed to the pool. It's a bit cooler than we're used to, but as the afternoon warmed up it felt better and better. We had a lot of fun playing catch and "piggy in the middle," which my kids all call "monkey in the middle," despite my best efforts to make them adopt my way of speaking. There are many names for the game. 

Here we are the first few minutes at the pool, getting used to the water:

Busy evenings, matching dresses, and a sister visit!

I wrote a draft last week about a particularly busy Tuesday, when Andrew had to be on campus so I had to do all the driving children hither and thither by myself. And it was chaotic. Today was no better. 

It's a Thursday and Andrew had his first day of teaching today—how rich for him! I've already started working on my third week of content. 

My sister Kelline flew in for a visit as well and, as luck would have it, her flight landed at 6:50 and Andrew's class let out at 7:00! Campus is only a few minutes from the airport, so he went to pick her up after he go out of class (she offered to ride MARTA out to us, but...it was just as easy to pick her up). 

Benjamin had swim practice at 6:00, so we quickly ate dinner and then everyone hopped in the car to take Benjamin to the Y. And then we drove to the library to pick up a hold for Miriam. Then we drove to the park to drop off the glass recycling we amassed over the summer and I had promised the little kids they could play at the playground for a little while, but...the parking lot by the glass recycling was all full because of baseball practice, so we had to go park in the next lot—by the outdoor hockey arena (iceless)—and then walk to the glass recycling.

We were laughing because the baseball parking lot was completely full—people were parked on the grass and just...all over the place—yet the hockey parking lot was nearly empty and it's honestly just as close of a walk from the hockey lot to the baseball fields as it is from the baseball lot. 

Parking lot -- baseball fields -- parking lot -- hockey arena.

It was not the same distance for us to carry our glass to the recycling receptacle, however. We had to carry our glass through the parking lot, the baseball fields, and another parking lot to get there. But that's okay. 

Alexander, Zoë, and I each took a box (I took two, actually). Miriam carried a big plate of glass from our fridge (from a shelf that mysteriously broke...no one knows how) and helped steer Phoebe in the right direction. The kids had fun throwing the jars into the bin. 

And by that time, unfortunately, it was about time to turn around and pick Benjamin up. Phoebe had so been looking forward to playing at the park, however, so (after clearing it with Miriam) I gave the kids a couple of options. They could either all pile in the van and we could pick up Benjamin together, or I could go pick up Benjamin alone and leave them at the park to play (under Miriam's supervision). 

Surprise, surprise—they chose to stay at the park. Miriam took a few pictures for me while they were playing (because we unearthed the 4T panda dress that matches whatever size Zoë's in now...that Zoë and Miriam used to wear simultaneously, though I can't find a picture of that right now):

Zoë and Phoebe, August 2025

Phoebe this morning

Phoebe woke up dry. 

"Are you ready for me to unplug your chummie?" I asked.

She put her hands over her ears. "Yes!"

I unplugged the chummie (which causes a couple loud beeps, which she doesn't like). Alexander turned on the bedroom light when he walked into the bedroom at that exact moment.

"Wow!" Phoebe exclaimed. "That turned on my light!!"

"That...is incredible!" I said. 

"Yeah, it is!"

Phoebe and I giggled about how funny it was that her chummie beeping turned on the light. 

"Actually, I turned on the light," Alexander explained. 

"That makes more sense!" Phoebe giggled. Then she immediately started singing, "Baby shark! Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo! Baby shark..."

Sometimes she is the happiest, go-luckiest kid who just...wakes up in these fabulous moods. Not every day, but...just sometimes.

A potty training breakthrough?

After several good nights in a row, we have had several...not...good...nights...in a row. 

Quick tangent! 

When I was in high school I was (tangentially; I was an "extra" and didn't really have a part) in a musical production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and in that play Princess Puffer has a line where she breaks the fourth wall to interact with the audience and she picks someone to point flirtatiously at and says, "Fancy seeing you here two nights in a row!"

But the girl who was playing the part was affecting a strong kind of...cockney...accent and so to my ears it sounded something more like, "Fancy seeing you here tonight, Sinnarow!"

And it took me years to untangle that line. I was always like, "Who is Sinnarow?!"

So, anyway, we've had a few bad potty nights, Sinnarow, and I've been losing hope. 

But, I just finished my run and took a shower (yes, I ran at midnight because I forgot to do it earlier and then I had to shower and then...)

Quick tangent!

New internet!

Our internet went down last night, sometime around dinner time. 

I had seen a technician out at the box earlier, but I can't remember when. Did I see him out the window from my chair while I was reading? Did I see him outside when I called the kids in for dinner? Or when we were driving off to swim practice and church activities?

Whatever the case, the internet went down sometime while we weren't quite paying attention (because we were having dinner). 

When Andrew noticed he made an appointment for today—sometime between noon and 4:00—and we did our best to go on with our lives, a very difficult thing when so much of our lives is online—our work, our school, and our family, honestly.

I took the kids to the church this morning. Miriam practiced the organ. The kids did their science lessons (online) and their math lessons (online) and played dodge ball and practiced on the real pianos (what a treat). And then we came home and waited for the technician. 

By 2:00 I was starting to worry. I knew they said they'd come between noon and 4:00, but I had class at 4:00...online...so I needed the internet to be back on by then. So I reached out to some neighbours and found someone home and willing to let me hop on their internet. 

But then at 2:15 the technician showed up! And we were back online by 3:30. 

We have some new neighbours moving in up the street—into Miss Anne's house—and they were getting outfitted with a new internet connection and somehow whoever was doing that cut the cable to our house...which was kind of obnoxious. 

The good news was that we didn't have to pay to have them come out because clearly this wasn't our fault...and they were astounded that our equipment was so old (we had it installed in 2019) so they updated our modem and wall box and things so it would be compatible with their new system. So, I guess that was nice. 

I was mostly relieved to be up and running in time for class!

Signs of autumn

More so than the drop in temperature, it's the bugs that tell us it's fall. 

Cicadas scream their last screams and fall from the trees to twitch on the ground in theatrical death throes before being overtaken by ants.

Joros string sticky tightropes in the trees, catching everything in sight, and growing rounder and rounder by the day. 

And then there's the oak worms. They're everywhere, black bodies writhing on the pavement, often squished by car tires and people's shoes, leaving yellow goo behind.

Phoebe collected an entire handful of them the other day (not wearing the outfit below—this picture was taken in the morning after when the kids remembered they'd meant to let them go again):

Grandpa Frank's funeral

Here we are after dinner with our Lindor truffles, to celebrate (with) Grandpa Frank, who loved Lindt chocolates:

Uncle Matt said that the last time he took Grandpa Frank shopping, Lindt chocolates were high on his list of necessities, so his kids decided they should have a bowl of Lindt chocolates for the funeral attendees to enjoy. We didn't get to go to the funeral, but we did get to watch online...and Andrew picked up some chocolates while he was out grocery shopping.