The Furnace that Rattled

F-a-m-i-l-y

Catherine has that word in block letters at her house.

As well as two other words in the same style can be found on the mantle: Joy and Work, though it is a stretch to see their connection to one another.

I discovered that it is possible to scramble the letters and get the word War as well.

But back to the weekend, and away from the letters that make up family, joy and work.

Between the two moms and the six kids, I had a wonderful two days -- children's games, practising the piano, a trip to the opera with the adults, and lots of food.

When we weren't having regular meals we were doing snacks -- mostly popsycles.

Stop taking pictures, Arta.

Oh, at times Mary and Catherine would warn me ... no more pictures.

But there were many times when I couldn't leave my camera in its case.

I loved how the groupings of children would change, and the fact that often it was groups of threes and not twos that they liked to play in.

As well, stuff would go wrong.

For example, I moved the shower door downstairs and steel ball bearings came tumbling out of it and fell on the floor. I gathered them up.



Mesmerized by a shared video

I took them upstairs to Catherine who said she didn't think those actually went in the shower door, that I had just come across a place where the boys had hidden their marbles when they went to take their own showers.

Late Saturday night the basement light came on and Catherine came bounding down the steps two stairs at a time. Catie was at her heels. I heard Catherine command Catie to return to the main floor for safety reasons and then rush to turn off the furance.

The noise that Mary and I slept through sounded and like a train coming by at the Shuswap. In reality, this was Catherine's furnace trying to go into full flight.

Yughioh, blessed yughioh

She turned it off and we went without heat for the night and the day, which really didn't seem to matter to anyone, least of all to the six cousins who kept playing together.

Catherine would occasionally turn on the oven to keep the heat going in the house.

Other than that, normalcy prevailed, games were played between different groups of children and a lovely weekend was enjoyed by all.

Love,

Arta