Today

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We didn't really have a choice in the matter with the remnants of Hurricane Ida - we had to let it rain...and rain...and rain some more. It started raining on Tuesday afternoon, and continued until sometime last night. There were very few breaks in between - most of the time, a steady rain, and some pretty strong wind! In the end, we got about 5 inches of rain, and a dead branch we were concerned about on our backyard oak tree was taken down by the wind - so one less thing to worry about.

Today, we went to a neighborhood block party. There was free food (Carolina packers hot dogs - which are bright red...weird!), games, a bounce house, and face painting. It was really nice and fun. Zach had a wonderful, bouncy time in the bounce house, and he emerged in one piece which is amazing to me. I had Rebekah strapped to me in her carrier, and she was as happy as a clam. Hmm..."happy as a clam"...what in the world is that?! Are clams joyful? How would you know if a clam was happy? I just googled it, and here is the story behind it:

Happy as a clam is a portion of a phrase quite commonly used in the US in the early 19th century. It even made it into the poetry of John G. Saxe, who wrote Sonnet to a Clam and waxed poetic about the secure state of clams when they are immersed completely in water. Happy as a clam is only a portion of the phrase, and the full phrase should be "happy as a clam in high water," or at high tide.

*Ahem* Rebekah was happy as a clam in high water. My blog is not merely to share with you what we do, it is to enrich your lives with tidbits of useless priceless wisdom.

Now the children are sound asleep, and I am preparing to start researching Christmas gifts. I want to get my Christmas shopping done a couple of weeks before Christmas this year, so that I can enjoy the days leading up to the 25th instead of running around like crazy. Wish me luck! Have a wonderful weekend!