3/4 Done!

It's hard to believe that three quarters of the school year are already complete.  As a teacher who happens to love June, July, and August, it means we're getting closer and closer to summer vacation.  As a teacher who has a lot to accomplish in a year, it's a wake up to call to accomplish everything on the great to-do list of the year!

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful.  We had springlike weather and the kids spent most of the afternoon outside.  The goats and chickens and kids and dog were wandering all over the yard.  We had a half day, so I was able to get a lot done at home.  We have off today for Good Friday and the big kids are gone for a ski day with Dick.  This is the first time the kids have gone together, so hopefully that goes okay.

JD also has the day off, so we went to town with the little man this morning and bought lumber to do board and batten on our entry way walls- I'm pretty excited about this project!  He's off running errands and I'm (supposed to be) packing things for a night away and prepping for Easter dessert.

Happy Easter!  Don't forget what this holiday is really about!

Traveling Birthday Dinner and more

I was supposed to host Book Club on Friday. By Wednesday, I hadn't started the book and had no idea if I would.  We were trying to get our baseboard done and every most of our spare moments were filled with staining, sanding, poly-ing, nailing, etc.  Thankfully when I sent a message to my fellow BCers, most of them couldn't make it anyway, and I was able to postpone.  With the stress of reading the book and planning/preparing food stuffs out of the way, I was able to focus more on getting ready for Saturday's shindig.

Gotta love a man with a nail gun.

My friend Julia DV had planned a traveling birthday dinner for Christa.  14 of us started at Hel's on Saturday night with appetizers and drinks, then traveled to Julia's for salad and dinner, and finally made our way here for desserts.  Julia G made an awesome cake that incorporated Christa's love for running and her fight against breast cancer.  I made key lime pie trifles as I knew Christa was a fan of key lime anything.

The only pictures I took the whole night were of the desserts.

Christa's Mizunos

These were supposed to have a pink ribbon tied around each.

I didn't get that far.

A few other pictures from our weekend:

Quin feeding the goats with Daddy.

I love this kid!

Usually we wake up with Quin in our bed.

Sometimes we find him in someone else's bed.

My nephew Braxton came for a visit on Sunday

and fell asleep on his mama.

Snow Day!

Remember last year?  The Year of No Snow?

Or the year before?  The Year of the Big Snow?

This year has been more typical.  We've had storms but nothing super-major.  The big ones predicted by forecasters fell short.  School officials have been canceling school the night before instead of the morning of.  I'm guessing that it has something to do with parents being able to find childcare for their kids and for planning purposes in general.  I kind of like knowing the night before that we have the day off, but part of me misses those early morning calls.

School was cancelled for today before it even began snowing.  Snow Days and Summer Vacations are right up there on the list of Top Ten Reasons I Love Being  a Teacher.  I was happy with a snow day even though it means going a day longer in June.  We've got so many projects going on here, and it was nice to get some things done (and to sleep in).

The kids had fun in the snow.  I should have taken pictures, especially of Quincy, all bundled up and looking like the Michelin Man.

JD was around for a little while, but spent most of the day plowing (cha-ching).  He hates plowing when the ground is soft because it makes such a mess of driveways and yards where the snow needs to be pushed.

This evening, we managed to get some more baseboard done.  I love how each board makes the house look a little more finished.  I spent a good deal of the day staining, priming, and painting, so hopefully we'll be able to finish things up soon.

Spring officially begins at 7:02 tomorrow morning.  I'm ready for winter to be done!

Back to Blogging

I've realized that if I don't post frequently, then I post very INfrequently, so here's to more posts, less breaks.  And here's some randomness for you.

Zeke got 2nd place for his weight class at his tournament yesterday.  I failed to send the camera up with JD, so no pictures.  JD's sister was in town from Nantucket for the weekend, so she came over with our nephews last night.  The cousins had a good time together.

We headed to church in two vehicles this morning.  JD headed south to visit friends for the day, and I added two more to our three and played referee to five kids for awhile.  Christa came for a visit, as did Dolly, and the day flew by pretty quickly.

I unpacked my Christmas dishes and Ry did a photo shoot with Brodie:

(I dream of someday having a nice camera and some photography skills.)

I'm looking for a good (as in yummy) salad dressing that is good (as in healthy) for me/us.  Any suggestions or recipes?

Life

The past weeks have been packed full of work, pneumonia (JD), sinusitis (JD), a nasty cold (Q), sap boiling, wrestling (Z), horseback riding & a birthday (R), a George Strait concert (me), and diy projects.  Today is good.  JD is with Zeke at a wrestling tournament, Quin is napping, and Ryley is at a friend's house.  I've been trying to get the house into a presentable state for our company tonight.

We didn't get a lot accomplished while JD was sick- we were all in survival mode.  I'm so thankful that he's healthy now!

We tapped nine trees behind our house and spent several evenings boiling small quantities of it down.  We boiled a few gallons at a time and ended up with almost a gallon of pure Vermont maple syrup.  We set up a turkey fryer connected to a propane tank and did the boiling in the garage.  Most of the batches were finished off in the kitchen where we kept a closer eye on it.  It's delicious!

I finally finished redoing the hutch that we bought in the spring.  I'll post pics once we finish the new baseboard behind it so that I can put "stuff" on the shelves.  I can't wait to open up the Crate & Barrel boxes full of new white dishes that have been serving as a nightstand by our bed since Christmas!

We had 8 girls over for Ryley's birthday.  It went pretty well with only a little 3rd-4th grade girl drama. I didn't get very creative with her cake this year, but we did have horse-shaped brownies with our ice-cream sundaes.

Notice Quin bobbing around back there.

Zeke has enjoyed wrestling.  His first tournament was last Saturday.  It was local, so JD took him, and then later in the day, I went with Quin.  After about an hour, Quin was ready to leave, so JD took him home and I stayed for the rest of the tournament.  Zeke had 4 matches and won 2 of them.  He ended up getting third place in his weight class for K-2 kids and was pretty happy about the medal he received!

In between matches- one of Zeke's teammates kept saying, "He looks just like you!"

Quin is definitely keeping us on our toes.  He is a stubborn little dude for sure.  In the picture below, he is trying to get his coat down to go back outside.  He had gone outside with his boots, a diaper, and his coat, and was seriously ticked when I brought him inside.

He's not sleeping in his crib any longer, but isn't exactly sleeping in his bed either.  One of us lays down with him at bed time and he falls asleep pretty quickly in his bed.  At some point during the night, he ends up in our bed- sometimes between us, sometimes at our feet, sometimes on the edge of the bed.  He has also been known to climb in Ryley's bed, play with the dog, or play with his trains during the night...

We started staining boards for baseboard, and then decided to replace the trim around the doors as well, which lead to replacing at least one door casing.  The sad thing is that our house isn't even five years old, but due to inferior materials, we'll be replacing things slowly for quite a while.  

Quin's on his way down the stairs; that's my cue (Q) to get off the computer!