Monday September 26th

We took Harper to school, and drove to Cedar Grove (a few miles outside Hillsborough). We bought 4lbs of muscadines and some BBQ. We're going to make April McGreger's muscadine pie from the Southern Foodways Alliance Cookbook. Muscadines always remind me of the childhood story, I've been told many times. When I was three or four, I went to my great grandmother's house where she had muscadines. I sat on a bucket of muscadines, eating them with juice running down my chin, until I had a bad stomach ache.
Then, we went to the library where we found Bone 4, Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 days, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4. Ava was very interested in Nancy Drew, looking at all 50+ titles and covers. But, she didn't want to start the series because the first book was checked out. When Ava returns from Intersession, she is supposed to dress as a favorite literary character. Today, she wants to be Nancy Drew. We'll see if she changes her mind in the next two weeks. We walked downtown and found red Hurricane Lilies on an abandoned lot. A wonderfully lush and over-grown lot with brick steps off the curb, leading up to the old home site. As we were walking back, I looked down and realized I was head to toe in Hurrican Lily red.

We had a quick lunch at Weaver Street, and ran into Maddie and Jack Baselice. We picked up Harper, and took her to dance with Chiara. She had a substitute teacher today, Miss Courtney. David Bowie and marching seemed to be part of the theme. There is nothing like a children's dance class to put a smile on your face. We ran to Trader Joe's for apples (Michaelmas is on Friday). More about Michaelmas later. Quick dinner. Pick up Colin at the bus stop. Straight to Saxapahaw for choir. Both of the girls did some singing. We practiced Beyonce's "I Was Here." This song is so powerful, I often tear up while singing. Our Monday nights together in Saxapahaw are idyllic. Ava begins the evening by reading, overlooking the sunset on the Haw River. A couple of weeks ago she was finishing a book during choir practice, and said the music was the soundtrack to her book. Colin is able to do some last minute work, while listening to the choir. And, Harper plays with tinker toys. There is also coffee and smoothies.



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