The house is a mess.  It's been a busy week - my sister has been in town for our cousin's wedding.  Saturday, Tania and I went to get pedicures in the morning.  I've only done this a few times now, but i don't like it.  It's so humbling and personal for a stranger to touch my feet.  And I think they are judging me and talking about me in Korean.  And I can do just about as well myself.  The wedding took all day and my dad watched all four girls.  I felt a little guilty about this.  I became very crabby after the ceremony, and realized later that it was because I had been picturing my late cousin Chrissy as the bride and imagining if that was what my aunt was thinking too.  My sad emotion is not wired properly and will show up as crabbiness, inappropriate laughter, or take chargedness.  My sister talked me into sending Chris home to relieve our dad and going out with her and the cousins.  I felt guilty about this too, especially after I ruined our last wedding experience a few weeks ago.  Because of this, I didn't even ask if we could go to the party at my dad's the next day and instead went to his parents.  Before we headed to his mom's though, we spent a few hours at the Japanese garden, a Frank Lloyd Wright house, and a windmill that we climbed up and out onto the balcony of - which was especially exhilarating and powerful because it was quite windy.  Eleanor cried and refused to walk back to the car because she was too tired and as such, lost quite a bit of her allowance.  

I have started a new allowance system for them.  They each receive 50 cents for each year old, just for being a cooperative member of the family.  They are expected to help out around the house, but I don't want to train them to think I owe them because they have cleaned up their own home.  If they refuse to listen or if they hit, they lose a quarter.  They decorated 3 envelopes each which go in file folders which record their earnings.  The first quarter of each dollar goes into giving.  We have begun to talk about what they can use this on - maybe saving up for a flock of chicks through Heifer International.  The second quarter of each dollar goes to long time saving.  Charlotte suggested hers would be for vet school.  The last 50 cents of each dollar goes into the spending envelope.  In less than 24 hours they both used their spending money up on ice-cream.  Charlotte's already had buyer's remorse regarding her $1.75 tweety bird ice-cream bar.  Excellent.  

Yesterday we met my dad at the river and took turns in the kayak.  It was so quiet and relaxing, so peaceful to see my locale from an untouched perspective.  As I pulled back around, the kids came out of the woods like natives on the Amazon, or at least like Von Trapp children in trees.  We all had a nice visit with my sister and niece.  We stopped to see Tania's son's baseball game, where the girls blew their earnings at the ice-cream truck, but he got hurt and we left early.  

Work was great today.  I had the kids make Andy Goldsworthy inspired installations along the bike path.  They did a great job, passersby enjoyed their creativity, and I loved walking around outside all day.  When I got home, the water had been shut off because we forgot to pay the bill, but it wasn't a big deal.  The kids played with the neighbors and I started talking up another block party.  Wendy came over and we ended up at the mall because it seemed like rain and I had nothing to eat at home... and the messy house was making me uncomfortable.  It was fun.  The mall is cool as long as you don't go more than twice a year, don't try to shop, buy the kids something to eat, and let them play on the equipment as long as they want.