Music Celebration

Hannah had her very first violin recital this weekend. Both sets of Grandparents came for the event and much fun was had by all. Hannah played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Hot Cross Buns". She played well and didn't look too nervous but she didn't look too happy either. She had a very serious look on her face the entire time and kept glancing up at Erik and I, so it's a good thing she almost has her songs memorized. We will have to work on her bow; you'd think having an actress for a mother she'd at least know how to bow but it completely slipped my mind to teach her so the audience got a head nod. Hannah is doing a wonderful job reading music and is really enjoying playing. She even sometimes tries to teach Ivan how to play and tells me she's practicing teaching for when she grows up.

What's a mom to do?

What do you do when you're in a parking space far away from the entrance to the store, you have just latched the final car-seat seat belt (of four) and are just shutting the door to go put the cart away when you look back to see a pained look on your little boy's face, his legs crossed in desperation whispering, "Mom, I really gotta go." ? In my own desperate desire to avoid a wet van and/or clothes I told him to hop out and aim for the shrubbery. I immediately regretted my decision (it's a parking lot!) but not immediately enough to change it; he was already obeying. Then to my mortification I noticed an older lady getting into her car a few spots down and I'm sure she noticed the little white bum hanging out. I felt my face get all warm and red and I quickly reached for my purse to look for something in it, all the while curious to know if she had actually witnessed my failure as a mother. I should have visited the bathroom before we left the store or surely I could have unleashed four children under the age of 6 from car-seats and sprinted to the store bathroom and made it in time, couldn't I?
I'm not against little boys peeing outside if it's absolutely necessary, and sometimes with little boys it is, but a parking lot? Oh my, that feeling of mortification will undoubtedly jolt my "take the kids to the bathroom before you leave the store" memory for a long time to come.

SuperBoy

I am enjoying this boy oh-so -much. Last night I took just Clayton with me to the store and he talked all the way there and all the way home but played shy and flirted with the girls at the store whilst ignoring Uncle Dan who works there. He talks a lot. It's my favorite when he looks at me and says, "Just think about it."

Garden Gate

This year I have a gate for my garden. I'm sort of proud of it. I built it entirely out of stuff we had lying around the shed and backyard. Well, okay, I had to buy hinges. I pulled apart a wood pallet we had lying around and I used extra 2 x 2s. Even the posts are recycled from our gazebo we tore apart a weekend ago or so. Eventually Erik and the kids are suppose to build birdhouses to sit atop the uneven posts and I will reattach the garden sign to the trees. The hammock is hung in the garden and only a few of the 2 x 4 frames for the garden beds are set but Hannah and Ivan helped me start some seeds inside today. Oh and we also have a few trellises to build for the pole beans/peas. But my garden is coming together and it's coming together earlier than usual. I'm really, really excited.

Skirts

When I was little I wanted to be Laura Ingalls, right down to the skirts and bonnets she hated most. I remember wearing a lot of skirts in 6th grade, and not only skirts but layers of skirts. A little later in middle school I even made my own hoop skirts out of wire coat hangers and wore them under a full jean skirt to church. I also borrowed some of my mom's dresses from college and wore them with aprons when I felt like learning to bake. I love the feel of skirts around my knees and ankles, I like the swish, the movement of air, the freedom of movement. Somewhere along the way though I lost the love of skirts and I think it was due to the overwhelming desire to fit in and be popular; for awhile it trumped the desire to be myself and wear what I love and little house on the prairie skirts just weren't popular in the 90's in my middle/high school. I've grown up a little since then and now that I have a daughter of my own who wears nothing but skirts I feel that old tugging to layer on the skirts. My mother laughed at me the other day when I told her my goal in life was to wear more skirts and aprons. I understand, it sounds kind of odd. It's not THE goal of my life but in general I would like to wear skirts and aprons more. Every time I see a picture of a lady wearing a skirt and apron and rubber boots heading out to her garden in a magazine I pause and think, "Oh, I like that, I could do that." And with my new found love of hanging clothes on the line to dry it seems a little more practical; cotton skirts dry faster than jeans.

Adventures in Schooling

I was looking back over my recent blogs and suddenly shouted out loud at my computer (inciting strange looks from my children), "How did I miss blogging about that one!"
HANNAH IS READING. We've been working on our short vowel sounds and last week we blended some sounds together and wah-la! a word read entirely by Miss Hannah. Then another and another. Hannah is getting better and better and faster and faster everyday and really liking it. Ivan is attempting and can do it if he decides he can but most mornings he decides it's too hard and gives up. I'm not pushing him though, he's 4, and I'm just letting him work as he wants. I want learning to be fun for him. He does really enjoy Starfall.com and has been playing on there reviewing his letters and sounds. We've also been playing around with learning the Alphabet in sign language. Clayton is even trying to join in the fun and sing the phonics alphabet song though it usually ends up as "A, a, apple, b, b, ball, a, a, monkey, a, a, noodles, b, b, cat". I'm quite impressed though, he can almost count to 10.
I'm finding schooling more enjoyable every day (well, everyday that we do it). We still take a few days off every now and again but usually the kids are asking to do schoolwork, my only rule is that I get a few minutes to myself in the morning to check e-mail, facebook, blogs and drink my coffee. Some mornings I drink it slower than others and this morning it is now gone so I must get to work.

Yard/Garden Work

My brain is trying to motivate me to get outside and work in the yard some more but my body is begging to just sit in front of the computer while the the youngest kids are sleeping. It's finally light enough to jog in the morning again and so I started last Thursday and Friday thinking I would have the weekend to recover (it's been a while) but alas it wasn't raining to much on Saturday so we started in on yard work. For the first part of the day we made the kids work picking up pieces of the hose the dog chewed up (this was their punishment for being exceptionally naughty Friday night) while Erik demolished the gazebo and I pulled nails out of the salvageable wood. Then I dug post holes (wet sand is really heavy) and started to re-fence the garden. Then we came in and had lunch and hot chocolate and played Chutes and Ladders, Ivan won, and then headed back out for more work. The kids learned how to hammer nails into scrap wood and built a "bench" and we got the garden re-fenced and 2x4 boxes built to be my garden beds this year. Then I did a little more work Sunday afternoon with getting the boxes set a little ways into the dirt. Needless to say, my body is sore today and just wanting to rest. I am very excited though to be working on my garden earlier than normal. Usually it gets to the end of May and I realize, "Oh wait, I should have planted already." Not this year, this year I'm actually planning ahead. I'm also trying new things in my garden, like potatoes. I read a great article on growing potatoes in hay and I'm excited to try that, only everyone I tell about it nods their head and says, "Oh yeah, I knew that" or "Of course, that's the way I do it" and I'm left wondering why I only just found out about it. So am I missing anything about spinach or cabbage or onions?