tearwater tea...

I did not invent the concept of tearwater tea. It is a story in the book, "Owl At Home", by Arnold Lobel. The story depicts Mr. Owl thinking of sad things, like sunsets that no one saw, mashed potatoes left on a plate, pencils too short to use, and chairs with broken legs. Mr. Owl cries his tears into a tea pot, and says that tearwater tea is always very good.

This has always been one of our favorite children's books, and my dear late mother, who got things mixed up, called it Owl Water Soup instead of Tearwater Tea.

So, this is what is Owl Water Soup....my kids, twelve of them (everyone but Emily, who had to work, and Ben, who is in the Army, and the two little girls), plus Mrs. Ashley piled into the minivan and Abigail's car, and drove to a small city nearby to go ice-skating. I had given them some money, but imagine their surprise when the lady behind the counter told them it would be NINETY-ONE DOLLARS.....okay, so seven dollars each doesn't sound too daunting, but when it all adds up, OUCH. So they went to DunkinDonuts, then to Walmart, where they bought some pizzas to bring home and bake....

Paul and I were home with just the little girls. I prepared a yummy dinner for tomorrow's lunch at church: Peppercorn marinated chicken breast cutlets, 6 pounds of boiled and cubed red potatoes, mixed with three cans of cream of celery soup, plus lots of fresh chopped green peppers and onions, and a pound of crispy bacon crumbled on top....all in the crockpot in the 'fridge, ready for tomorrow.

The bigger kids got home from their failed ice skating expedition, put the pizzas in the oven, and we played poker, Abigail, Mirielle, Joseph, Aaron, Samuel, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, and I. It turns out that I am very bad at poker. But it was oh-so-much-fun. Mali was helping Mrs. Ashley get things set up in her room, and Paul was watching football.

Now they have put a movie in, but four of the kids are still battling it out to be the poker game winner.

And this movie is distracting....