"Bless Abigail" Day

Tuesday was “Bless Abigail” day. In the morning, my mother sent a box with a babydoll in it, and several little outfits. Abigail was thrilled to have a babydoll, and figured out which outfit went with which task: one was a swimsuit (with pants to keep the baby’s legs warm); one a gown for the ball; one a dress for everyday; one pajamas; one a romper. It makes me smile to see the bald baby dressed up for a ball, but that is imagination at its finest, I guess.

Our dear neighbor Butch returned Monday night from his six week tour of the great National Parks, traveling from North Dakota to Utah to Texas. (He sent two postcards “To Isaiah and His Family” during his travels.) He came by almost immediately, giving Isaiah and Abigail a ride on his John Deere Gator, to their great delight. We talked at length (we’ve both done a lot since last seeing each other), and when Phil came home from the errands he was running, he talked to Butch, then went to help Butch move some furniture, and got a driving tour of the land, and talked on until dinnertime!

We are so thankful to have such good neighbors. Butch made his money in construction, and he has lived here long enough to have made mistakes and had successes (his third time building a bridge over Hog Creek has been the bridge that’s survived).

Abigail’s final blessing of the day was from the box of “dress up” (Halloween) clothes from Phil’s mom. She sent Abigail a pink princess dress, complete with tiara, clip-on earrings, necklace, rings, and magic wand/sceptre. That was a lot of bling, and Abigail enjoyed it thoroughly. Pink in the country gets dirty awfully quickly, but she wore her pink proudly, and since the late afternoon brought showers, her dress stayed clean, as we all stayed in the trailer.



After the As (Abraham and Abigail) went to bed, I decided to try Robin McKinley’s Outlaws of Sherwood with the boys. The first 12 pages took us about an hour to read, between the small type and the vocabulary definitions (which I thankfully know and don’t have to look up, but my goodness, what a vocabulary that woman has!) and the explanations for the turns of phrases. But the boys want to keep reading. We’ll see.