Birthday!

Today is Linnea's sixteenth birthday. Linnea is somewhat of an anomaly here at our place. She does not look like a miniature Tim, as do most of her siblings. She is an organizational wizard and a fiend for routine. When it is her month to be in charge of the kitchen you had better not pour yourself a cup of coffee and set it on the counter-top while you turn to get cream because by the time you turn back to your cup of coffee it will be dumped, the cup washed and back in the cupboard because it "messed up the kitchen". She has been the family barrista for four years, having taken over for Katarina. The surest way to get her out of bed in the morning is to suggest that someone else make the coffee that day.

She is passionate about history, particularly the history of Texas and the South. She has been so immersed in studying southern history that she found is scandalous to learn that she had an ancestor on her father's side who was a spy for the Union--and a woman to boot.

She is also the daughter who is the most fashion-sensitive (though still adamant about modesty) and the only one of the girls even slightly interested in wearing make-up. What does she want for her birthday? Fingernails like mom's and to go bowling with the family.

I think we can manage that.