Spring is here!

Dining outside.

Lunching outside.

Cuddling outside.

Finding new pets outside.

Schooling outside.

Reading outside (with a weapon nearby in case anyone thinks of interupting me).

Plop!

Something fell out today!

Wednesday

Today, in the afternoon on this beautiful spring day,...

Calvin and I were tutoring public school children, one of whom asked for my #...

Lucie, Isabelle, and Freddy were performing in a circus and in a play about the moon with their friends Spencer and Nicole...

and Sebastien was cruising along 200 feet above the ground in that contraption pictured above. He's in the back seat.

C'est Isabelle

C'est Isabelle

This is old lady Isabelle. She looks similar to me (pictured below). We have the same fashion sense; she may actually be wearing my hand-me-downs. She also has grey, fluffy hair and wrinkles. She has some pretty muscular arms though; I guess she works out. Pictured with her is a pet zebra, a kitten (I think), and a bird that I didn't know she wanted. She is eating vegetable pizza and a donut. I won't let her eat donuts so she plans on having them every day when she is grown up.

Teeth and another knife

We discovered recently that Freddy's two bottom center teeth have been knocked out of place by the Man Teeth that are coming up underneath them, a very exciting discovery indeed!

This morning one of those teeth was super loose. He received his tooth box and is now all ready for the tooth fairy.

Today at breakfast:

Freddy: Eating the bagel hurts too much!
Sebastien: Get me a knife.
Freddy: No! No! No!
Sebastien: You have to eat something.
Freddy: You aren't going to cut out my tooth!!
Sebastien: No! I am going to cut up the bagel!

Knives

A good idea?

Well, for some reason that I can't quite fathom, Sebastien thought that the children should all have a pocket knife. So, three of them got a My First Opinal. Calvin got a more advanced version. I received a lovely set of ten, the smallest of which is perfect for the cat to weild against his enemies. I am sure that the set wasn't really intended to be a gift for me. And Sebastien got a few more. We are swimming in knives right now and there have been no serious wounds yet. There have been whittling lessons, along with some lessons in choosing good wood. Freddy has been the busiest with his knife. He is pretty grown up now.

Freeze

I cleaned out the freezer this week. See what I found? That is "nail polish" on those finger tips. We may have more red finger tips around here after we play with the items that Sebastien brought home today...

More ornaments

Well, I took a walk around outside to check and, no, we don't have any garden gnomes. We specialize in the big stuff like Mr Rhino here charging an old jeep. Our smallest statue is probably St Francis who keeps a beatific, watchful eye on our lake for us.

Country livin'

The nicest part of living in the country is having space for all of our cherished lawn ornaments and statuary, especially the giant motorcycle.

C'est moi

Yes, that is me when I am old, artistically rendered by my lovely Isabelle. That is the turtle that she will give me because the turtle is my favorite animal. I will have short, fluffy hair because all old ladies do. I will have a face covered with wrinkles. I might as well stop trying to gain weight because it doesn't look like I'll ever be successful. I better watch the slicing and dicing also, or I might lose a few digits. My future has been read, and it doesn't look very pretty, especially in shorty-shorts.

On the tip of a pencil

Look at the gyroscope spin! We played with these for hours before we sent them off to Ghana with our visiting guest. He will use them to teach the Africans how airplane instruments are powered by gyros.

...these foolish, affectionate people made a jubilee of every little household joy.

--from Little Women, our current family read-aloud.

We are all for jubilee around here. We are trying for jubilee 24/7. I'm pretty sure that it would work if we all weren't so cranky and moody all of the time.

Bags

For the spring Easter/craft fair at church this year, we made a dozen little bags filled with Easter candy and assorted little doo-dads. I made extra for three little children around here and some of their friends.

Last year we made doll quilts and pillows. We (Lucie and I) worked our fingers sore every night to get them done in time. And then only half of them sold! We discovered the others at the church's rummage sale priced at $.25 a set!!!!!!! A quarter for all that work! For a doll quilt and a pillow! I bought them.

I am hoping that the bags sell better. They were less work, but not as satisfying or fun to make.

Ta-da!

What if some people do so little good and so much bad in their lives that when God forgives and forgets all their sins, there just isn't much left to remember?

--from A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren

Lazy Susan

"A fine start! A perfect beginning! I don't know how you manage it so cleverly!"

"It comes naturally," replied his wife. "There's a lot of work to it, but on the whole it is pleasant work."

--from The Trumpet of the Swan

Seb

As husbands go, he was a good one.

--from The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B White

Into the wild blue yonder.

I miss flying with my husband. Usually the children go with him. Calvin was with him this day. The airplane is experimental; the pilot is mental.

We met at an airshow a long time ago. Hmmmm. Twenty-two years ago. Can that be right? No, twenty-three years ago this summer. We are old!

Soup de jour

Freddy loves to make soup. So does Isabelle. They make it, and then Sebastien and I eat it for lunch. Their secret ingredient is "human (cumin) spice".

When we were served the soup on the day that this photo was taken, I paused. Hmmm. None of the ingredients looked familiar except for the water and the human spice. I pried and learned where the ingredients were gathered from: the floor of the supermarket. The two of them had scavenged during the morning shopping. They found some parsley, some lettuce, walnuts, a lima bean, and a macaroni.

Anyone want to come for lunch?

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

Freddy and Sebastien have been assimilated. The rest of us won't be far behind.