We're starting to reach friends and family who live farther south as their phones work again. Everybody's all right so far.

Brighteyes is too upset for lessons this week. She has done a lot of art, especially drawings. Her father was very impressed with a horse she drew. She followed the instructions from Draw Write Now, but she gave it a deeper and more realistic neck and chest. She experimented with proportion by making one leg of each pair skinnier than the other. She's playing with shading in some of her pictures. She also made a paper doll chain and started crocheting a poncho.

Sunshine has done some drawing as well, and is getting better at directing the pencil. She has wanted a lot of books read to her, and has taken to carrying around a stack of them with her. Sunshine is getting less timid and more talkative, which makes it easier to interact with her. She's also getting sturdy enough for Brighteyes to tussle with, and that's started. Sunshine usually initiates it.

The heat wave is over. We can turn off the fans and even close a few windows at night. The orange butterflies have loved the area right outside the girls' room where the passionflower vine and the honeysuckle grows. The butterflies eat the honeysuckle nectar and the caterpillars eat the passionflower leaves. There's usually four butterflies out there any time you look. The fall flowers are coming along, and it's getting easier to coax the girl outside for nature studies i.e., "Let's look at the flowers!" Autumn's hand feels like a benediction this year.