This is late, and the number of things I'm supposed to be doing outdoors is increasingly exponentially. My favorite time of year is upon us! I may have to switch to less words and more pictures soon.
Our new floors are in! I am so happy with them! Just the peace of mind knowing when something spills (which it did within 24 hours of them being installed) the floor won't warp or stain, is priceless. Across the floor that first night was a prolonged sock-skating party with kids exclaiming, "Look, Mom! I'm not getting slivers!" and Eli, on walking across them barefoot for the first time: "Ah, there's nothing sharp poking my feet!" How does the saying go...you don't know what you had till it's gone? Oh, how long we waited for this!
I finally made a decision on an accent color for the dining room. I went with lobster tail, and I love it! It's rich and earthy and out of my comfort palette zone. It brings a zip of life to all the greige walls.
I'm taking my time reorganizing the school book shelves, prioritizing which books are put back and removing ones that are never used (like my animal biology and anatomy books from a vet tech course 21 years ago). I'm also waiting to hang many things back on the walls to make sure it's really what I want. The new furniture placement is working better, and it feels like we've gained square footage. The inflated price of lumber has really thrown a wrench in a lot of our plans, though.
The months are getting busier and flying by at an incredible pace. I feel that if I don't keep moving I will fall behind and never finish a thing. Over one rainy weekend early in the month everything suddenly was green. Time to till and get early plants in the garden came, and I found myself racing newly emerging shoots to clear away the dead stalks and foliage from last year in the flower beds. I've been relishing the tulips and daffodils and, as I do every spring, think I need to expand the assortment of earliest bloomers in my beds. The boys have kept me supplied with fresh bouquets for the kitchen. I was elated to discover the dianthus and creeping phlox and bleeding hearts already blooming and the naked ladies (amaryllis belladonna) peeking through the soil. I've been anxiously watching for the elephant ear hostas that I just planted last year to make their appearance, praying they survived the winter. Soon there will be honeysuckle, lilacs...and asparagus! I'm saving spaghetti sauce jars to reuse for spicy pickled asparagus spears again this year.
So far in the vegetable garden, the garlic (always planted in the fall) is up, radishes, onions, head and leaf lettuce, spinach, and peas are planted.
Creatures are again creeping and crawling and being collected and observed. I drew a moth diagram on the school room chalkboard to study, and Aidan captured a sphinx month the next day to complete the study. Gavin loves to catch creek minnows (victims of the fish traps he builds from 2 liter bottles) and keep them in his fish tank to watch for a few days before he puts them back in the creek. Late one night we found a giant water bug flopping around on it's back on the road. Totally alien and creepy, it's the first time I've ever seen one. Toads are plentiful in the garden, and Aidan managed to catch a granddaddy leopard frog. And the rocks...my house has been invaded by rock collections.
We started out the month with our oldest turning 14 (how is this possible?! I'm not yet 40, but I'm feeling every day of my age lately. My knees are more accurate than channel 7 at predicting rain, and if I indulge in a quick sit down mid-afternoon I will fall asleep) We ended the month with our youngest turning 4 (how is THIS even possible?!) Aidan loves technology, coding, games, and creatures. He has created a few board and card games of his own that his brothers play with him (and I'm too slow to learn). Addie loves cats, "uditorns" (see her cake photo for translation), angels, PINK, Calico Critters, and Hatchimals.
April was a difficult month for us with illness. A nasty virus swept through the house mid-month and took turns causing a wide variety of issues with each of us for over two weeks. In the midst of it Addie woke one morning with a red hot toe and a pink streak running from the toe to her ankle. At first I thought it was a scrape from our huge moose of a dog running across her foot, as he loves to walk on all our feet. But as the day wore on it didn't fade, and Addie started acting sluggish. I looked up images of infection streaking, and they were exactly what we were seeing on her foot. I ran her in to the doctor, and sure enough, she had lymphangitis. On the back of her toe was an itty bitty white bump that was either once a sliver or a cut that had become infected, and the infection began spreading to her lymph nodes. What is bizarre is that she never once complained about it, which is very much not like her. She was put on a heavy dose of antibiotics, and within 24 hours all the red had disappeared from her foot and toe.
Aidan and Gavin took the Iowa Assessments this month at the local public school, and plan to dual enroll again next school year to play football. It will be Aidan's freshman year of high school (cue the tears, again) and I've been pouring over different curriculum options, comparing them to the units he needs for high school, and counting credits. Again, I don't know how we got here so fast! I am a firm believer that, while it can be beneficial and enlightening to broaden your horizons with varied and diverse studies, the focus for our boys should be on developing the skills they need to succeed as adults, the tools they need to support themselves and possibly a family down the road. Aidan's trajectory seems to be in science, particularly computer science, so that is where our focus will be. Gavin's passion lies with engines/motors/machinery (and has since he was very very young, dating back to his fascination with Thomas the Train and wanting to be a train driver, and his long running collection of Tonka toys).
I finished up the last five books of the Chronicles of Narnia series this month (the last are better and more exciting than the first couple!), and then dove into a used copy I found of Marilla of Green Gables. It was written as a prequel to Anne of Green Gables, meant to describe what happens to Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert growing up. I should have prepared myself for mediocrity. I new better than to expect the poetic descriptions and literary painting of L.M. Montgomery, but the book reads like a junior fiction novel and feels contrived with samples of back country turns of phrase thrown in for good measure.
Watercolor has been my creative medium lately. Since they've already been gifted, here are a couple I finished. So many beautiful colors to capture, so little time!
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