one thousand stories *part 3*

There are hundreds of ways for John Paul to entertain himself at foster mama's house.  Pumping water was a favorite for everyone.

also, tools.  and dirt.  check.

We wrapped dumplings for dinner.  But first, foster mama needed to make her own dough wrappers, using a clunky old noodle-making machine that was plugged into several different lengths of extension cord and tucked into the corner of her neighbor's storage room.  (Do I need to clarify that the neighbor was also a relative?  As far as I could tell most everyone was related in one way or another.)

Then back to her house to wrap the dumplings.  She was never entirely satisfied with my girls handiwork, or her granddaughters either - she has a bit of a no nonsense-ness about her and shoddily wrapped dumplings were not on her list of approved items!  But poorly wrapped dumplings or not, she was grinning the entire time.

Time to light the fire and John Paul was here to "help".  This was awesome because she pulled up a little chair and instructed him to sit in it and said "when you were little you would sit right there while I got the fire started".  This time around John Paul was hankering to feed the fire himself.  And after this, every time that fire got started there were plenty of children around, hoping to help.  Julianna and Lydia fed corn cobs to the fire for an hour on Monday!

Dumplings, boiled in cornmeal soup. I'm not sure how to describe this in a way that makes it sound appetizing, but it was delicious!

After dinner we loaded back in the van and headed to the hotel in a downpour.  We were exhausted.  But also delighted to be planning on another day with foster mama tomorrow!