November 27, 2001

Dear Diary,

Today was ok. In the morning I cleaned and did school work, at ten: thirty I had my Calligraphy lesson, lunch, more school, dinner, bed. At dinner time Andrew had a big outburst because he said something and then when Mom told him to come into the bathroom (obviously to be spanked), he refused to and even started to run away through the house when Mom went over to him to try to make him obey her. Mom ended sending him outside for almost twenty minutes or less while she went to pick up Matthew from gymnastics and drop him off at town hall for a meeting. And all through that episode Elizabeth was in the bathroom crying because she put baking side into the cornbread instead of baking powder, or something like that; and Dad was sitting at the table saying some favorite line from a movie he saw a month ago, something like peace or I don't remember. After dinner (and a very meager one it was) at about 8:00, when Andrew was reconciled, Dad read to us. I recently put all my markers into my lap desk, so I had that downstairs and started coloring (Mom wore the teardrop dress today) while Dad read. Of course Andrew had to go get something and color too. And of course he sat down behind me at the most two inches away so that when I ever moved my elbow, It would bump into his head. He never moved the two inches it would take but when I moved a little away and moved the markers around so they were accessible, he moved right back up to where I had been. Maybe he just didn't feel it. Well, Dad read for at the most 20 minutes, then he made his voice fade away then finally stopped and said that he wouldn't read anymore. He put the book away and asked Nathanael for the jumble. I wonder if he didn't like us coloring while he read. That seems kind of stupid, though.