April!

Every time I think about getting over to my blog two things stop me: knowing how much I have to catch up on and knowing that catching up will mean sifting through heaps of pictures in order to even remember what we were up to six-plus months ago. I thought I might just write a narrative to catch up on the balance of the year, and then add a picture a day for advent or something like that, but the obsessive part of me won't let myself off the hook that easily.  The thing I've come to treasure about this blog over the years is not just the sharing part of it, but the fact that it is a record for myself and my own family to look back on. Have I ever mentioned that I have had each year of my blog bound into a book? So, I don't want to disappoint myself and have nothing to look back on for 2018. 

Now, to time-travel back to April, which began with Easter on April 1st!

The Easter bunny brought only playdoh and garden seeds this year - win! 

The weather was quite mixed, as April always is, because I seem to have this nice springy picture: 

And this one, both in my April folder: 

The first half of the month consisted mostly of school and silly stuff around the house. C took to wearing A's original (and VERY mild) glasses - which made her look about 13. 

 

Quila continued in her role as class pet... 

We dyed eggs and did cool science experiments like this one: 

THEN the kids and I set off for my folks house, for what ended up being a 5 week stay! My mom had her second shoulder replacement surgery (the first shoulder was done last summer) and so we stuck around to help with the heavy lifting and driving her to physical therapy. She has since made a full recovery and is quite happy with her new shoulders. The kids and I had a fabulous time. Don was able to pop over most weekends so we had his intermittent company, and in between just enjoyed the company of my parents and the change of scenery. There is always lots for the kids to do at my folks' house, and as the weather got steadily warmer they spent more and more time outside. 

Weaving was high on the list this time - started with the willow branches, and then with my really old basket-weaving equipment (I never get rid of anything). 

Sweet Quila enjoyed traveling with us and she got continued to get along quite well with Spencer. She's also showing off my journal here - an item that has really meant a lot to me this year - probably something I could write a whole separate blog post on - traveler's notebooks, bullet journaling, art journaling. It's been a fabulous way to combine list-making and journal-keeping, two long-running passions of mine. 

Judging by the outfits, looks like we got a warm day at the park: 

And this little guy got a haircut: And an oatmeal cream pie.

Watercolors for all...

And we gratefully watched spring come upon the land...

The only regret of the month was missing out on the blooming of all the bulbs I had planted back home, in the new front garden I slaved over in the fall. Don took a picture for me. This spring, no matter where we may travel, I must make sure not to miss them again. 

So, March?

Well I'm setting new records all the time for how long I can go between posts!

March is so far back now that all the kids look different as I review my picture folder from the month... and that sort of freaks me out. I mean, that wasn't THAT long ago, right?

A few highlights from, well, six months ago:

March began with a very mild day, and we enjoyed it outside. William was inspired to do some outdoor drawing. My favorite was the sketch he made of the mailbox. I don't have a picture of it, but my favorite thing about it was that he titled it "The One That Stood Still".

Spot the impostor: 

We finished the master closet renovation and installed all the shelves. It turned out beautifully, with lots of improved storage. More "stuff" went in after I took these pictures, but here's the finished product: 

I also finished an afghan! A small one, but a completion all the same. Made this for Matthew as he loves orange. I would love to make a similar one for the other kids in this yarn season. 

Don's family visited for a long weekend and we all took a hike on a beautiful day. 

Awwww...

Amy wore her octopus from the aquarium every day for the whole month. 

Lots of class pet nonsense...

We tried the picasso-tiles-on-clear-contact-paper idea which made for some beautiful stained glass against the snow. 

Oh, and March had way more snow than February! Typical New England. 

We jumped right into another house project - the painting I was most dreading: up the stairs and the upstairs hall. So high, so many doorways. But with a lot of help, we got it done in surprisingly short order, even getting all the dark trim painted white. It all looks so much fresher and brighter. 

My 35th birthday happened too...

And Amy and William wrote some great poetry - haikus based on our earlier aquarium trip. 

Caroline ditched dance class, but I had already paid for her recital costume, so she was pleased to twirl around in this when it arrived. 

And that appears to cover it for the most part. If I can get a handle on picture management that doesn't take hours and hours I will be back soon with more monthly reviews, and with any luck I'll catch up with all of 2018 before the year is out. Thanks for being here with me!

The February Catch-Up

February began in the snow that January ended with.  Along with that fun we managed some sewing - little zippered pouches still being about the most satisfying project ever. I could whip these out in about 30 minutes once I got in the groove. 

There's always some interesting art project going on... this time it was Amy's hand painted white and photographed as a statue...? I'm not quite sure what she was going for here, but it did look cool. 

Then we celebrated Quila's birthday. At the time we thought it was her first birthday, but her vet visit later suggested that she's probably more like 3 than 1. Either way, a good time was had by all. 

More school and such... Caroline is such an eager student, even though I never really planned any formal "school" for her once we switched to homeschool - just be a kid and all that. But she's so smart that we've done lots of handwriting practice and math stuff, too. 

Rollerbladers always....

And one day we went to Petsmart, only to have this guy get very attached to the idea of a Bearded Dragon as a pet. Yeah, cute and all, but no, sorry Buddy. 

However, I was feeling generous this particular day, and agreed to two hermit crabs as a consolation prize. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course after getting them home in their tidy little habitat I read up on them and discover that actually would rather live in much more deluxe quarters with very specific care requirements. Right. (Four months later, one is still hanging on - the other shed the surly bonds of earth back in April... we've jokingly talked about setting the remaining guy free but, er, that's probably not quite right either). Right. 

Then there's this:

Mid-month the kids and I went over to my folks' for about ten days.  Don traveled to Oregon in that time for a science conference, so we all enjoyed a little change of scenery.  However, a trip to Kohls showed perhaps my kids need some real friends....

Quila came with us again and continued to amaze with her adaptability and how well she gets along with my parents' cat, Spencer (who you may remember was originally ours, way back before we moved to Oregon). Cats are so interesting with their unique personalities.  Quila has been consistently terrified of my boys Ollie and Humphrey but is perfectly comfortable with Spencer, and vice-versa. Go figure.

Even though February wasn't a very wintry month, we did get one pretty snowfall while we were away. 

Back home after President's Day, we took a morning off school to go get all the kids haircuts, a speedy and successful mission, and followed that up with a lunch out.  Lots of fun, and it was nice to realize how these sorts of things are suddenly getting easier after a looooong run of having a child under two on hand. I remember this same liberating feeling once William passed two - that suddenly we could do things again, not being restricted by hungry, sleepy babies or run-crazy-through-the-store toddlers. 

Assorted helpers with assorted projects...

Then a big project: overhauling the master closet. Again, I could do a whole blog post of before pictures but since we are summarizing here, let's just go with the fact that it was full of schtuffff and like all the closets in this house, the walls hadn't seen a coat of paint in 25 years. 

The weekend that I ended up doing most of the dirty work (like removing the popcorn ceiling) I had a mysterious fever and didn't feel great - and I was SO worried I was coming down with the flu, but thanks to Dr. Google and a trip to urgent care I got a diagnosis of mastitis and quickly felt better on antibiotics. All my years of breast feeding, and only now get mastitis. I frankly was ecstatic that it wasn't something all the kids were going to catch. 

Do you like my safety glasses?

The last day of the month found us back at the aquarium, this time with me as chaperone. Honestly, not my favorite place, but we fortunately avoided the crowds and had a really good time. These giant spider crabs were very cool. 

And that was February in a big nutshell! I'll continue sorting through the mountains of digital pictures and keep going with March next chance I get.  Till then!