When I came into the kitchen, we began by making blueberry blue corn muffins. I am teaching the girls fractions with our measuring cups and spoons. They took turns measuring, leveling, sifting, cracking eggs and spraying the pan. The blueberries from Costco are the largest and best I have ever seen. Beth came over when the muffins had just gone into the oven, helped put maple syrup, orange juice, etc. on the table, and took Izzy back with her to help give her dogs a bath. Haley and Eric were borrowing her dog, Yenta, for a few days to see if Haley could tolerate Yenta's hair with her allergies. They want to have a dog, but know for sure that Haley is allergic to Darcy. I warmed up and buttered the griddle, mixed up the poi pancake batter, and ladled the pancakes onto the grill. Then, I helped Saul and Sami finish up the fruit salad. I broke out my last jar of homemade peach preserves, made from Laurel Molen's gift of a case of peaches last year, to spread on the muffins.
Beth was done with the dogs by the time the muffins had finished and we all had a warm, delicious breakfast. Sami even had time to write her menu on our bulletin board. We had found a fruit at Wegman's that none of us had ever seen before called a black velvet apricot. We cut it into pieces to share and said the shehecheyanu over it. It was juicy and delicious. Saul snapped a picture of himself when we commented that he would not be in the photos.
During breakfast, we discussed catching a movie in the afternoon. For a moment, we had completely forgotten about Saul's plans to attend the funeral of Paul's Aunt Henrietta. He had learned about her death from an email notice from our old synagogue and from our friend, Larry Shipper. No notice had appeared in the paper. Saul had decided to attend the funeral with Larry as we all had known Henrietta for many years and greatly admired and respected her for her warm, practical, and down-to-earth nature. By attending the funeral, Saul was able to see his mother, sister, and niece for the first time since October of last year. His mother looks well and was very happy to see him. His sister acknowledged his presence and when he commented on the fact that his niece was avoiding him, sent her over to say hello. Paul did not acknowledge him, but Saul went over to him at the end to offer condolences. Henrietta's son's family and the rest of Paul's family were all very warm and welcoming. In the end, seeing his family and his mother in good health was a relief.
While he was attending the funeral, I cleaned up the kitchen while the girls played upstairs with their toys and dollhouse. Ari had called to say that he was stopping by with his friend, Zach, on his way back to DC from Matt Katz's bachelor party this weekend in the Poconos. Ari was very amused when I commented that Zach looked very different with short-cropped hair. As it turns out, the Zach with the long curly mop of hair whom I have met twice, is a different Zach. Ari and Zach had a bite to eat and continued on to DC. Haley and Eric stopped in see Grandmom for a few minutes while they were picking up their borrowed dog and shortly after, Saul returned from the funeral.
The girls seemed so tired that we sent them to bed to nap for an hour at 2:00 p.m. Of course, they insisted that they weren't tired. We tried to wake them at 3:15, 3:30, and then finally insisted they get up at 3:45 p.m. The weather had cleared up considerably and we decided to go to the pool. It turned out to be a delightful afternoon. Sami had her first swimming lesson and found many kids with whom she and Izzy could play. We lingered until 6:45 p.m. and then went home for showers, leftover pizza, and movies in our bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment