What a Week

We're wrapping up school for the year and it's crazy around here! I've been so swamped that I just didn't take time to blog. Here's what we've been up to (or at least what I can remember of it!)

Friday April 28
The kids had a 4-H service project at the local food pantry. They helped make meals, unpack boxes, and delivered meals to the needy. Afterwards, everyone went to the park for a picnic, games and a run-through of the variety show skit for the Area competition on Thursday. The weather was cool but gorgeous.

Later in the day, I finally got to use one of my Christmas gift certificates from John and made an appointment with the massage lady. I figured I deserved a treat. It was heaven!

Darth "Ben" Vader looks on as Nathanael blows out the candle he picked out himself!
Saturday April 29
Nathanael is five years old now! It's hard to believe my baby is no longer a baby. He is thrilled to reach this milestone. John grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, we ate ice cream and cake and opened presents. He was delighted to receive the Narnia and Chicken Little DVDs.

Sunday April 30
John had to sing on the Praise Team today, so I stayed home to get the kids ready. When we got ready to leave, my van would not start. I called the church and after about 10 minutes, someone finally answered the phone and went to get John. John said that after this past week, his stomach sank when he heard that our final car had died. He was very relieved to find it was only a dead battery and he did not even complain that he had to jump start it in the rain!

We went to El Chico's for lunch and then I prepped for Praise Team rehearsal, went to Mary Beth's wedding shower, then had Praise Team rehearsal. Afterward was Sunday Praise & Worship and potluck (I love potlucks). I didn't know it was potluck though, so I had to run home and grab something. Fortunately I had baked beans ready to go in the fridge.

It was a very long day.

Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday
I tried to get stuff done around the house, but it had all been piling up for weeks now and was a lost cause. I had a lot to do to get ready for the Co-op End-of-semester celebration and the other activities we have for the remainder of the school year. Managed to make some final arrangements for our vacation in two weeks.

Erik dropped off his tiller for us to use, so we will finally get to have a garden this year! John wasn't sure whether to be happy we're going to get our garden or mad at me for creating this project for him :-).

Thursday May 4
Spent most of the morning looking for the Civil War costume. It has hung unbothered in the closet for three years, and I even bought a matching hat for it two months ago. Now, when it is needed (for the first time since John wore it as an 8-year-old!) it has vanished. I was ready to scream. (I think maybe I did.)

We had play rehearsal and decorated the church for the co-op celebration. We came home for a brief rest before heading out the door to piano, choir, and the 4-H Area Variety show & Fashion Revue. The kids probably did the best they've ever done, but they placed second. Afterwards, several families from our club went to Fazoli's for some late night pizza and fun.

Friday May 5
Everyone in town must have had a yard sale this weekend, and I was very sorry that I was too busy to enjoy the cheap thrills. However, I did manage to stop at a couple of the church rummage sales, where I found two prizes: an end table for our living room and a new outfit in my size from my favorite clothing designer- for $3.00! It was enough of a thrill to make up for having to miss all the other sales.

The Josefina Play: Becca is Josefina's friend Mariana, and Philip, as always, is "Papa". He comes in very handy for the girls' plays!

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting costumes, food, and all the other stuff ready for the co-op Celebration that evening. It went off pretty well. We moms were just so relieved that school is over that it really wouldn't have mattered how it went! The theme was a Mexican Fiesta, so we had Enchiladas and Tacos with all the trimmings. Becca and Philip's class performed an American Girls play about Josefina (a Spanish-American girl from 1824) and John Mark's class did a spoof of "Little Women". Nathanael and Ben's class sang "The Erie Canal" and pulled around John's old tobaggan for a barge, and John Mark put on a top hat as President Lincoln and recited the Gettysburg Address. We gave out report cards and Achievement certificates and ended the event with the Pinata game.

After we cleaned up, the older kids had the lock-in that they had been planning for several weeks. They watched movies and played games all night while three of us moms stayed and scrapbooked. I got eight pages done from this past Christmas. I finally headed home at 4:30 because I had to have Becca and Philip at their piano class recital at 10:20 Saturday morning.

Saturday May 6
After 4 hours of sleep, I got the kids up and to their piano recital. Whew- another thing finished for the year! We stopped at a few yard sales on the way home, but it was too late in the morning and they were packing up. Maybe next weekend. Went to Lowe's and picked up some fertilizer and a few more plants for the garden.

John was unable to till most of the week because of rain, but he got to work on it Thursday night and finished up today. We have a nice size plot and the kids are very excited.

The final Symphony pops concert was tonight and we had tickets, so we had a date night even though both of us were completely exhausted. BUT... we had a great time! We stopped for appetizers before the concert, and we really enjoyed the concert of music by Henry Mancini. (John says he was born in the wrong decade.) We went to Steak & Shake afterward for hamburgers and chocolate milk shakes- mmmm!!

Sunday May 7
I had to sing on the Praise Team this morning. John is usually up with the birds, but he slept in and woke me up at 7:45 (I was supposed to be at church at 8:00). Yikes! Afterwards, we were supposed to have CARE group, but the group kind of fell apart this week, so it was just us and Ted and Christina & family. We had a fun meal together and Ted and John made their Oktoberfest plans for this year. (Ugh!)

We got some of the garden planted this afternoon and the plan is to finish it up tomorrow. John Mark spotted our renegade mole, but the mole escaped once again. John Mark is plotting his next move in the ongoing saga of "Capture the Mole".

This next week I am going to tackle the house so it is in good shape before we leave on vacation, and I have promised to get the new song book compiled for church (sigh). It is a long overdue project that I have been looking forward to and dreading. It will be another busy week.