We drove up to Murray, Ohio a few weeks ago for some research. I'm working on an essay about coal mining and plasma donation and poverty in South east Ohio and this little town used to be one of the largest coal-producing towns in the world. Now its a bedroom community with a gas station, a ball field, and a small museum dedicated to its mining past. A park sits on the old mine site and a shadow of the now defunct train line still cuts through town.


The boys love trains. It was cold enough to make stiff fingers, but the train was a big winner.



We got to go inside the red caboose and check out the observation seats up in the box.


The Monkey loves to help cook. "Need a chair" he says, over and over until I bring him something to stand on so he can "help" with whatever I'm working on. Last Sunday we made cinnamon rolls and his job was to collect all the sugar crumbs that spilled out as I cut the rolls out.


When the Monkey isn't helping cook or reading a book, he's drawing on paper.


Another regular Sunday afternoon activity at our house is building with the Lincoln Logs. Mr. Baseball and I wanted to use all the logs we could in one house and this is what we came up with. The Monkey was still in his Sunday clothes because he'd just woken up from his after lunch nap and somehow we managed to keep him from knocking over our masterpiece for quite a while. However, after we left it alone for a while he did end up riding his push bike through it while shouting, "Knock it down, knock it down," over and over again.


Mr. Baseball was pretty proud of himself.


Can you tell that the Monkey just woke up?