Race to the End

Ah...end of the school year. So calm. So peaceful. You know, there's nothing to do. HA! Let the race begin!

But before the race, we are relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous weather. Saturday, we went on a bike ride with the kids, Lindsey and I hit some garage sales, and I found a cute little settee at the thrift store. Jeff wasn't too thrilled about the furniture purchase, but when he saw how happy I was with it, he held his peace. Good man. He and the older kids are fishing today and just the gas for the fishing trip was almost double what I paid for my little loveseat, so I'm not feeling bad about it. Besides, it has cute tapestry fabric with quaint street scenes of what I think is supposed to be France. It must be idealized, because there's no trash or crowds, but I like it. So I'm borrowing my friend's carpet cleaner and it'll be good to go. Besides, once we move into The Furrow we'll need it (We were going to call the house The Burrow, but didn't want to infringe on JK Rowling's copyright;), so the Furrow it is;) So in ten days we'll actually have two living areas again. YEHAW! Sure, the house is ugly, but I can't wait. Just having a family room separate from the kitchen, and homework area with separate places to send the kids when they get noisy and/or ornery is such a blessing. I MISS my house in Ohio. Sniff. It still hasn't sold.

Anyhow, I'm off to take the boys to the park and completely blocking out the packing, cleaning, three dozen cupcakes to make, set up for the school musical production, cub scouts, and everything else I have to do this week...starting tomorrow.

Holy Guacamole

I meant to post on Sunday. Really I did. I just ran out of time and then never got around to posting. I guess I'm an erratic blogger. Sorry.

It was a rather memorable mother's day. Jeff made my favorite Belgian waffles, with strawberries and we arrived to church half an hour early. Then Jared exploded with a guacamole diaper that went up, down, and out, plastering his pants and shirt. I took him home. I gave him a bath. We tried church again. He didn't explode this time. In fact, he was a rather pleasant little fellow and I arrived in time to hear the four middle children sing 'Mother I love you' and 'Mother dear I love you so.' Trevor and the other older boys passed out mums (ha ha, someone has a sense of humor). And then we came home and I took a nap. Dinner was the oh-so-delicious meal of marinated shish kebabs and Angel Food Cake. Yum.

I'm sure Monday followed, but I have no recollection of it. In fact, I can hardly believe it's Friday again. The week passed in a blur. I think time is speeding up. Of course, it always speeds up at the end of the school year. So many activities, meetings, and assemblies crammed into such a short period of time.

I do remember taking Lindsey shopping for a bathing suit. I was appalled at the skanky bikinis they offered for twelve year olds. HELLO! Twelve year olds are NOT supposed to wear things like that. No one should really, unless it's in their bedroom. The college girls here haven't figured that out. They wear the worst clothes. No style, all sleaze. Hopefully, fashion designers will make a move toward style soon. Wouldn't it be nice to browse a fashion magazine and - gasp! - the models are wearing clothes! Funny how fashion magazines feature hardly any clothes at all. I read a book like that when I was a kid, it was called The Emperor's New Clothes. Good thing I can sew. Even if I don't very often, at least I can. I hear prom dresses are even tougher to find than bathing suits - unless you're willing to use the Emperor's tailor.

Pizza with a twist

We enjoyed a unique dining experience last night. We had pizza, which is an all-time favorite around here and pretty much a fail-safe recipe. Until yesterday. The first two pizzas turned out fine, but the chicken barbeque? That was another story. Three bites into it, I wondered if the nerves between my tongue and brain were malfunctioning. I mean, I made the pizza, I know what I put into it. And none of the ingredients matched the bitter chemical burn that was curling my tongue into my throat. I spat it out and rinsed my tongue. It was seriously bad pizza, but how did it get that way? I'd made it the exact same way I always did - same ingredients, same pan. Then I realized that the bitter taste was soap. Dawn dishsoap with bleach, to be exact. The kids do the dishes and hadn't rinsed the soap off the pan last time they washed it. Mmmm..mmm good - not. The funny thing is that Trevor and Lindsey each ate a piece and didn't notice.

Salmon Run

The salmon are ready for the Charter School's spring production Salmon Run. Different age groups represent various stages of the salmon life cycle, so I have a smolt and a spawning salmon. We didn't have patterns to sew by, so I made mine up. Lindsey hates it. She says her costume isn't fishy enough and reminded me that fish don't walk on their tail fins. I told her to imagine she was a fish trying to swim up a waterfall. I also gave her the option of making her own costume and, miraculously, the one I made for her is suddenly okay.

Especially with the collapse of the pacific salmon harvest this year, many folks in the northwest are really concerned about the health of the species. I like how the charter school is very environmentally aware, but my kids just really want to catch a real fish and eat it.

Yesterday we went to the Renaissance Festival. It was wonderful to get out and enjoy spring which had finally arrived. The festival itself wasn't quite what I expected. There were a musical groups, llamas to pet, and live hawks and owls to see for free. But the coolest attraction was the bungee jump and climbing wall that was fairly expensive. The kids were disappointed that I didn't shell out the money, but they got over it.

Other than those few things, the whole event seemed like a glorified craft fair with booth after booth of things to buy and overpriced carnival style food. After recovering from sticker shock, we came home and made funnel cakes ourselves which were absolutely fantastic.

I did get a few fun ideas though. Lindsey wants to make a windchime out of odd utensils and metal trivets like some we saw that sold for a mere $40. I told her we could probably make it for less than $5 so that's what we're going to do. But I did see a coat rack out of old utensils that I thought was really cute. When we get settled into our new living quarters, I'll probably copy it.

All work, no play

Is it Thursday already? Where did the week go? Obviously I survived last weekend with Jeff out of town - we even made it to church twenty minutes early with everyone clean, well-groomed, and sitting quietly. It was a fluke. I've had a whole week of Lindsey's messy hair and moving like molasses before school to prove it.

But happily, her paper route is history and the after school hours are much more peaceful now. Trevor got a job though. YAY! Now he can save up and pay his own way for all those expensive activities he's always wanting to do and save for his mission. He'll be working at the pool concession stand and is pretty excited about it. He starts in a few weeks and after earning $1 and hour doing a paper route, he's thrilled to make minimum wage.

It made it to 60 degrees today. But the pool won't open unless the thermometer creeps up to seventy. So for the sake of Trevor's mission fund, here's hoping we see an immediate warming trend. Jeff is finishing up the semester and LOVING being back on a semester schedule. I'm finishing up salmon costumes for Lindsey and Tyler's school musical production. I'll post pictures in a few days. It does seem that there's just been one thing after another - nothing thrilling or exciting - just a lot of jobs that had to get done. Hopefully, we'll get a little more caught up and have time to play this weekend.