Where troubles melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops

...That's where you'll find me... (anyone else hear Judy Garland?)

Last evening, after Ethan got home from evening worship but before we were joined by a sick Benjamin (and later, a sick Salem), the two of us sat out on the front porch to enjoy some chai and some serenity. It wasn't yet dusk, and the sky was dramatic.

While all of those views were from the front/right side, to the left we had this:

Can you see the raindrops next to the tree?

And in the back, this:

All of those were taken simultaneously. Well, as simultaneously as they can be when you take them one at a time.

Then Ethan manned the camera, actually stepping off of the porch.

Oh, my goodness! What is that? Is that really, truly, an almost-finished coop?
Why yes, yes it is. And also, a rainbow.

I see it! I see it! The almost-finished coop! (If only it would stop raining!)
And also, the grass. But who can mow when there's the coop to finish?
And also, the double rainbow.

Can you see the double?

And then several children joined us to say that Ben (9) was feeling terrible, and then Ben joined us, and then Salem (15 mos.) joined us (also sick), and then Edee (2) ran out to tell me that her head still hurt where the knots are on her head from falling off the bench. Two of her knots are indeed from her fall, but the last knot (under her ear, and not where she hit) I'm pretty sure is a swollen lymph node. And Miriam (5) is complaining that every time she sneezes, her loose tooth hurts.

So truly, our twenty minutes on the porch (well, and Ethan's five minutes off) represented the calm before the storm.

I think I'll cancel school for today (because that sounds more responsible than just letting it happen) and focus on getting laundry done and doing lots of read-alouds. Oooh, and we also have "The Waltons"!

But first, I'm going to rustle up some breakfast and then take a little nap.