Ants and scarves

We have ants. They come in through the front door and wander around. I was nervous they would make their way down the hall to the kitchen and set up house so I've been sweeping them out multiple times a day (like that does anything!) I remembered a book I read before coming to France called A Year in Provence. The man in the book had ants and put lemon juice down the ant home; it took care of the problem. I cut open a lemon (a lemon only costs $.25 here!) and squeezed juice all over the front door area. I knew I wasn't getting to the source, but wanted to see if it worked. I took a picture of the carnage...

Sure enough they fell dead the second they had contact with the citric acid. I kept the dead ants laying around to warn any coming ants of their pending fate. For two days we didn't have ants, but the lemon juice dried and today they are back. I won the first battle but the war goes on! To be continued...

We deliberately didn't bring many toys with us. It took a few days for the girls to adjust to not having a closet full of Barbies. I marvel at a child's creativity with what they have. The girls have created paper dolls out of pictures in the Friend magazine, the pool noodles come to life with personalities and voices, and they take endless videos of each other on Tennie's new camera (she earned $40 to pay half!) We brought some scarves that the girls received years ago from my dad and Babs. These are the most versatile play items we own! They dress up in them constantly, and use them as tents, leashes, baby blankets, etc. Here is Ceci posing as a fairy princess.

It is interesting to see their transition from being used to having a lot of exterior stimulation from toys and friends and errands and outings, to having to create entertainment on their own. Not that we've ever provided unlimited activities by any means, but we are spending a lot more time at home with far fewer toy options. Some days they get cranky and bored, but today Adele started sweeping the side porch while waiting for lunch! Let's hope this kind of behavior continues!