A Thursday Brain Dump...

 ... because I can't seem to keep up with the Monday "Grasshopper Days" thing any more.

I haven't given up on it, but I'm just not up for it every-Monday-morning.

So here's an update.

And some photos.

Most of which have nothing to do with the post.

But it's spring.

1.  Spring finally showed up.

The good news:

blooming  cherry trees :D

 The yucky news:

blooming slug populations.

And stinging nettles.

2.  Only a week and a day until we see our friends, the Choates!

We're going to more than double the size of our household for a few days :D

The ferns are putting up fiddle-heads.

3.   Inspired by a weekend with sunny weather, I spent several hours weeding and dividing bulbs.

And now I know what it feels like to be a hundred years old, thank you very much.

I'm hopeful that I've finally gotten ALL the Shasta daisies out from in front of the house.  (I'll work on the sides later.  Ugh.)

I planted Shasta daisies because pretty! sunny!

Won't they look great, cut and in a vase in the house?!

Except NOT, because they smell like urine.

Out they go.

Vanilla leaf are up!

4.  Gunnar and I have been going for walks on Saturdays.

Look at this old rotten stump.

Now look closer.

Doesn't it look like something from Narnia might live there?

And speaking of Narnia...

did you hear they're making another movie?

The Silver Chair!

5.  Remember the violets from an earlier post?

These ones.

They were growing along an alley behind a school where we walk.

I've met the couple who live there before, saw the man out in the alley and asked him if I could dig a couple and he agreed.  Of course, the day I came back to get them, the elementary school was having a "bike rodeo".  Hundreds of kids out in the playground, lots of extra parent-volunteers, and a couple of local police officers to help.

And I drive up, hop out of my van, and start digging up plants in the neighbor's yard.

Awkward, much?

6.  I'm not picking these :D

Just taking pictures of the trillium.

I'm sure there are different varieties, but around here they start out white and age to a lavender-pink.

7.  Have I mentioned that Wyatt got a JOB?!?!

Probably not, so I will now!

Wyatt is working about 40 hours a week at a small hydro-electric plant.  The commute is about an hour, but there's no traffic to speak of and it's a gorgeous drive which he enjoys.  He's learning a wide variety of new skills and getting to drive lots of different equipment (excavator!)  He has to get up early and be to work by 7am most days.

There's more, but let me just say...

... there is much rejoicing in the Grasshopper house.

Because I'll tell you what...

I love that boy.

But he's a lot easier to love when he's not underfoot 24/7.

Like all young men, he needed a job.  A purpose.  Meaningful work.

Hallelujah.

  

8.  Also, it is 80 days until Fiddle Camp.

Gunnar and I are practicing and learning new things,

and excited to go play for a week!

9.  We are already counting down to the end of school.

8 weeks of Tech College (Tate)

7 weeks of public school (Gunnar)

6 weeks of homeschool (Gunnar and me!)

One of three flickers I saw the same morning, hammering on chimneys.

10.  Facebook can get a (sometimes well-deserved) bad rap, but it's been fun to reconnect with 'old' friends.

A high school and choir friend is a successful local artist.

You can google up Ben Mann if you'd like to see his work.  (Do it!)

He also goes to local schools and helps the students create wonderful things,

like this huge mural we see when we go for a walk :D

Made by the students,

but it definitely has Ben Mann's artistic fingerprints!