Maybe it’s just me, but is there anything more precious than a little girl in a dress with her hair put up, with soft little baby wisps hanging down around her neck?

Princess of the Universe had to read about Apollo and Daphne yesterday.  (Yes, we did revisit Ovid and Greek Mythology, in hopes that the information is retained.)  She then had to do one drawing to illustrate what happens in the story.  Poor Daphne, turned into a laurel tree!

I can assure you that none of us are great artists here – at least not yet, but it was most delightful to see Miss Priss and Big Joe comparing notes on how they sketch trees. 

Yours is better.

No, yours.

Yesterday really flew by.  How do my days off do that?  Between school work and appointments and getting supper ready, before I know it bedtime has rolled around.

But suppertime brought around a situation that I love. 

Frugality.  One of the things I love about planning menus for the week and following through with eveything is that it’s usually only one or two meals into the week before there are enough leftovers to make something like soup or a casserole and thus saving one of the planned meals for the next night.

Last night we had homemade vegetable soup with cabbage, crushed tomatoes, the leftover butter peas and pork tenderloin (finely cut up) and corn.  We spiced it up with some thyme, Italian seasoning, ground pepper and sea salt.  Then Princess of the Universe made little cornbread pancakes in the iron skillet to go with the soup.

Hubby says that cornbread pancakes are a poor man’s food, but we think they are a rich man’s food.

Actually, Miss Priss was quite domestic all day long.  I figured there were visions of dollar bills floating around in her mind, and I was right.  She washed the windows and mirrors in several rooms and then swept and mopped the kitchen floor. 

At one point she came to me explaining that she had hurt her finger.  “But, mommy,” she said, “there’s no need for you to cry.  My cleaning service does accept tips.”

I gave her a dollar and two quarters. 

We continued reading Hamlet yesterday, and finally the story is beginning to take form in our minds.  It took a couple of scenes for things to make sense, but now we are getting into it. 

We are stumbling over some of the words, but have found ourselves amazed at the richness of the language and Shakespeare’s way with words.  It’s a worthwhile project.

One last thing.  I’ve entered into a pact with my FIAR girlfriends to get on the the exercise wagon again and do my Pilates at least three times a week.  More on that later.

Lynn