Baking: Cottage cheese seed bread and a blueberry tart. What can I say? I felt ambitious today.

Book Break

Rita called last night to ask if I would take her to run some errands this morning. She is still carless three months after Sarah totaled her Toyota Tercel. At first she put off buying a car until Sarah moved out of the house, fearing that if she had another car, Sarah would continue to drive it. Sarah moved out in the beginning of June, and Rita finally started thinking about buying another car.

On Monday I drove her to a reputable used car lot owned by a friend of Tab's. Gene showed her some vehicles that he thought might suit her, and Rita even test drove one of them, but she left discouraged. She received a small sum from the insurance company after the accident, which is all she has available for a down payment. Her minimum monthly payment on any of the cars Gene showed her would be $200, and she just doesn't have that money. I've never inquired too closely, but her only income must be disability payments of some type.

So now she is thinking of holding off on buying a car until she has paid off her medical bills. Without a car of her own, she'll continue to need rides to places, but I've assured her I can take her anywhere she needs to go nearly any morning.

I took Rita to the bank first, then she went to the drugstore while I took Stephen and Matthew next door to the supermarket and did Rita's shopping. When we got back we all went in to visit a little with Nana. The home health care worker, who stayed with Nana while Rita was gone, had helped Nana into her chair by the window. She looked like a fragile antique rose, sitting there wrapped up in her pink afghan. As always, Nana seemed happy to see me, and her eyes lit up when the boys ran to give her hugs and kisses.

When the twins were younger I used to read to them many times a day. I realized recently that now we only read twice a day, before their nap and before they go to bed at night. It also occurred to me that the boys rarely see me reading for pleasure since I usually just read in bed.

I want my sons to know that reading is fun, so today I instituted "Book Break." In the mid-morning, after I'd washed the dishes and before our walk, I read the twins a couple of books.

Then we all sat on the couch with our own books to read. After some initial squabbling over who was to have which Arthur book, the twins settled down on the couch with me and stayed remarkably quiet for the next ten minutes while we each "read" our books.

The boys seemed to like our reading time. I think this ritual is a keeper.

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