Grasshopper Days

Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, April 20, 2015

Outside my window...  sunny blue sky, the dogwoods starting to bloom, and laundry hanging on the line.  Ahhhh :D

Hearing...  a quiet house at the moment, both boys home and reading or doing schoolwork.  (Wyatt at the orthodontist.)

Pondering...  Yikes!  What a couple of weeks we've had!  We had a great start to our spring-break-spring-cleaning-BLITZ, and then the colds hit, along with a lot of pollen flying around.  I don't think any of us actually have allergies, but maybe the pollen is exacerbating the cold symptoms.  As we wrapped up our week of spring break, I was starting to feel better but Tate and Gunnar were miserable.  Tate went back to school anyway, but Gunnar took Monday off and then...

Walking up the hill to the park...

Tuesday to Thursday we had a guest ;D  So we ended up having a TWO week spring break.

Praying...  for everyone (Tate especially) to clear up (sinuses), for friends adjusting to a new baby (hallelujah!), and for a friend having surgery Wednesday.

Thankful...  for the new baby!!!  Such an answer to prayer :D  For the sunshine, lifting our spirits.  For laundry drying (for free!) on the line.  For my parents, coming home tomorrow.  And for easy access to health care and OTC meds.  Woo-hoo!

A solitary duck... the only one without a mate?

Wearing...  capri jeans, blue t-shirt, crocs.  And sunglasses ;D

Creating...  hmmm, craft night tomorrow, so I need something to work on.

Do you think she likes the swings?

Going...  to do the things we need to do this week.  It's a good feeling - but more effort - getting back into the groove with homeschool.  Coming down the homestretch, though!

Reading...  just finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and have started Every Living Thing, by James Herriot.

Not the bucket swing, the Big Girl swing.

Learning...  If you make five turkey pot-pies when you have a cold, it's kind of hard to tell if they're seasoned right.  (Not my very best work, but the boys don't seem to notice!)

Looking forward to...  Kerry and the boys are all going river rafting on Saturday - they're really excited!

In the kitchen...  why is it that after grocery shopping, it's so hard to think of what to make for dinner?  Maybe it's some kind of food over-load.  Or maybe it was the chicken-salad-on-a-sourdough-bagel lunch ;D

In the learning rooms...  Tate has eight weeks left, and Gunnar nine (thanks to our extra week of break), but he's plotting about how to finish early.  I like that attitude :D

Puzzling out an I Spy book...

Around the house...  oh how I LOOOOVE having the doors and windows open and feeling the fresh breeze blow through the house.  Yes, yes, yes!  I'm getting my fill now as it's supposed to rain later in the week.

The Mother Load...  oh boy. There's a lot we didn't finish in our spring break blitz, and that's okay, but I really want to deep-clean the kitchen.  Things get lost in the back of the cupboards, and the floor?  Well.  In need of some scrubbing.

She found it!

Noticing that...  Gunnar.  Grown an inch and a half since October.  Whew!

Something to remember for later...  when my boys were little I learned a trick.  I would put their socks on and have them stand on a flat piece of cardboard (like an empty cereal box) and trace around their feet closely.  (Trace then standing up, not sitting, because our feet will spread a little when we put weight on them.)  Those little cardboard cut-outs should fit easily into their shoes.

Kids won't tell you that their shoes are too tight.  They don't know any different.  We had a niece (not Naomi!) live with us for nearly a year.  The shoes she came with were at least two sizes too small and her toes were in a cramped, curled position.  The first thing I bought her was new shoes.  I let her wear sandals and go barefoot a lot through the summer, and her toes gradually straightened out.  Poor kid!

Something fun to share...  the random things kids say.  Out of the blue Naomi asked me, "Do you have a busy skunk?"  Um, NO.  Nor do I have a lazy skunk.

Later I had told her to leave something alone and I know she touched it.  She looked at me quickly and said, "I just fixed it.  It's okay.  Don't worry about it."  Yah.  You fixed it.

A favorite quote for today... 

Supposing you eliminated suffering.  What a dreadful place the world would be because everything that corrects the tendency of man to feel over-important and over-pleased with himself would disappear.  He's bad enough now.  But he would be absolutely intolerable if he never suffered.

 - Malcolm Muggeridge

Gunnar reading Winnie the Pooh

One of my favorite things...  a morning walk with Gunnar in this glorious weather!

A Bible verse...  Galatians 6:3-4
If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.  Each one should test his own actions.  Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.

I'm meeting with a group of moms talking about parenting and one of the themes is to stop comparing yourself to other moms... which is mostly (but not universally) good advice.

A few plans for the rest of the week...  the usual round of violin and piano lessons, babysitting Sammy, CAP, and homeschool.  My parents are arriving home tomorrow - looking forward to that.  And I'll probably go to a craft night with the chapel ladies tomorrow evening.  Since the boys and Kerry will be having an adventure Saturday (I could've gone, but I've done it lots of times), I'm hoping my mom will be free - having not seen her for a couple weeks :D

A peek into my day...    You are my sunshine...

Somebody loves to play the piano and sing