Vacation Recovery

I am recovering from our trip. My washer is glad to see me again, I can tell, and the cat missed John desperately. She won't leave him alone. The kids are back in full swing, but my wagon is draggin'.

Here are a few photos from the first part of our trip. We couldn't get the digital camera to download onto John's computer, among other things, so I had to use our other camera and now I have film to develop. I have become so used to the instant gratification from my digital camera that I can't believe I waited as long as I did to get one! John got it for my birthday last year and I love it.

The Arcade in Cleveland- Double Punch Day! See the lion heads that surround the edge of the ceiling, just below the glass? They used to blow streams of fire out their mouths when Rockefeller built this place- can you imagine that? Apparently, they caught a flag on fire about 30 years ago, so Fire Blowing was banned by the Fire Marshall. Too bad.


Clifton Hill (the main tourist drag) in Niagara Falls, Ontario

Getting ready to board the Maid of the Mist. The American Falls are behind us.

A family photo before Uncle David's wedding. Philip and Ben were "ringbearers" and John was a groomsman.

Nathanael and his cousin Hannah. They are just a few months apart in age. See the big bonk on Nathanael's head that he got just in time for wedding photos?

John, with his dad, brothers and sons. Isn't that a great photo?

The Great Adventure Part II

A continuation of our East Coast Adventure...

Monday May 22- Cambridge

Today is our day to check out of the Residence Inn in Framingham. I do more laundry and pack- how in the world did we bring this much stuff??- and John goes to see if the mechanic knows what is wrong with the van and also upgrades us to a minivan. Much better. The mechanic says nothing is wrong; John says "Keep it another day- drive it home!" We pray that he can find out what is wrong with the car before we leave the area.

We arrived in Cambridge, just over the bridge from Boston, and were tired before we had even done anything! We decided to forgo walking the Freedom Trail and take a Duck Tour instead. When John and I were in Philadelphia, I promised myself I would never take a duck tour, and here we were, glad to do it just so we didn't have to do any more walking! The kids each had a duck quacker and quacked themselves silly until the Duck Driver told them "No Unauthorized Quacking". Quacking was never authorized. We toured Boston by land and sea and each of the kids got to drive the boat when we were on the Charles River and received an honorary Duck Captain sticker. The kids quacked all the way to the hotel. We drove downtown and ate at the Cheers pub that inspired the TV series. We ate our sandwiches and watched the Red Sox play the Yankees at Fenway Park on TV. We tried to explain to the kids how cool this was, but they were unimpressed. We also stopped at the Boston Public Garden- beautiful in the evening!- to see the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues. It was cold so it was a fast visit. We were glad to fall into bed again that night.

Tuesday May 23- Plymouth

We were supposed to get up and go see the sailors raise the flag in the morning on the USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides", but we slept in instead. We did finally get up and go to see her at the Charlestown Naval Yard, and went to the museum there as well. Pretty cool. John also took the kids to see a WWII Destroyer, the USS Cassin Young, but I was too cold, so Nathanael and I shopped in the gift shop instead.

We had to go back to Framingham to see about the van before we headed for Plymouth. The mechanic could not duplicate the problems we were having and said he thought it might be something electrical that was causing a short in the transmission. Sigh. We drove both our van and the rented minivan to Plymouth, just in case.

Plymouth is a gorgeous little seaside town and the weather looked like it was warming up just in time for our visit. We arrived at the John Carver Inn and immediately headed out in search of seafood. Seafood found at The Cabbyshack. We spotted the Plymouth Rock enclosure and stopped to look at this famous rock. Not impressive... oh well. The kids were anxious to get back to the John Carver Inn and swim in the Pilgrim Pool, which had a mock-up of the Mayflower with a water slide and a replica of Plymouth rock that held a hot tub (and was much more impressive than the real thing.) But they were torn because tonight was the final competition in American Idol. They chose the pool. We had lots of fun at the pool because we were there mid-week off season and had it completely to ourselves most of the time. Cool!

Wednesday May 24- Plymouth

Since our van was evidently behaving itself again, we dropped off the minivan and then headed over to Plimoth Plantation. It's a living history place where they have created a reproduction of the Wampanoag village and the Pilgrim settlement. The Wampanoag village has real native Americans who work at the village, dressing and living (during the day, at least) as their ancestors did and answering questions for tourists. Plimoth colony has "interpreters" who take on the persona of one of the real Plimoth settlers and they talk and act as though they are living in 1627. It was fascinating to talk to them and discuss the politics of the day, the circumstances around their journey, and their personal histories. Of course, John and I enjoyed this a lot more than the kids did. There were no "Pilgrim" children about, since school was not yet out in Massachusetts. Afterward, we toured the Mayflower II, a full size, seaworthy replica of the original Mayflower. Also very cool. And after spending a morning on the Constitution, we were actually learning a little about colonial ships.

Thursday May 25- New York City

Off to New York City! Of course, I had to do laundry first, at Ye Old Washing Well, but we finally got on the road and the van did not give us a bit of trouble. Maybe it was ok? We drove down the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut and reached NYC just as rush hour was beginning. Most traffic was headed the other way, but it didn't matter- driving there is yucky no matter which way you're going. We made it to our hotel in Queens without any wrong turns, unloaded the car and rushed the two blocks to the subway. Aunt Mattie had given the kids each some money and we were going to try to get them tickets to a Broadway show, which we never could have afforded otherwise. We finally made it to the discount ticket booth near Times Square, but the only kid-friendly tickets they were offering were for "Beauty and the Beast", which John and I had already seen. Oh well. The kids had never seen the real musical, and there isn't anything like seeing a musical on Broadway. We got the tickets and headed off in search of food.

We ended up at another place John and I had already been- how weird is that?- The Brazil Grill, which serves all-you-can-eat Brazillian food. It was different, but quite good and we all ate until we were stuffed. Back to the theater, and the kids enjoyed the show enormously. They were all very impressed when we exited the show at about 10:45 pm into Times Square and it was as bright as daytime with all the neon lights. It really is an amazing experience. We formed a chain with John in the lead and the kids in order by age and pushed through the crowds back to the subway. One day John and I will look at each other and say how crazy- or how stupid- we were to take five children through Times Square! We dropped into bed, exhausted.

Friday May 26- New York City

We had tickets waiting for us for the Observation Deck at the Statue of Liberty at 9:45 and they said you needed to get there a couple of hours early. They weren't kidding! We were an hour late getting to Battery Park because a subway train was stalled, requiring us to take multiple trains in a very creative route. Our tickets were waiting for us, but it took an hour a half to get through the security lines. The kids stayed entertained with all the street acts. After we rode the ferry to Liberty Island, guess what? More lines! We had to stand in additional, stricter security lines to get into the Museum and Observation decks. Lines, lines, lines. This is definitely a once in a lifetime experience, because I do not want to stand in those lines again! Fortunately, it was a great experience. Unfortunately, we were so doggone tired from standing in lines all day (and from staying out so late the night before) that we skipped the trip to Ellis Island, which was really disappointing. We dragged ourselves back to the hotel for naps. When we awoke, we loaded the kids with twinkies from the snack box inside the van and headed to Ground Zero. They have done a lot of work since we were there two years ago. I think maybe the older kids understood why we brought them there, but it was lost on the younger ones.

The sun was setting and we took the subway over to Brooklyn and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge toward Manhattan. Nathanael had to hitch a ride on John's back, but the other kids mostly danced across the bridge. Where they found the energy, I have no idea. The plan for the evening was to skip the lines at the Empire State Building and go to the "Top of the Rock" at Rockefeller Center instead, but John really wanted the kids to see Central Park so we headed there before it got dark. Big mistake.

Central Park is filled wonderful paths, beautiful trees and flowers- and enormous boulders. The kids were enchanted with the boulders and immediately began clamoring to climb them. "Sure," John says, "Just stay where we can call you." The kids immediately begin jumping from rock to rock, running as fast as they can from one to the next. John rounds the corner just in time to witness Philip make a flying leap from one rock onto... something. Philip frantically motions to get his sister to stop her leap but it was too late, and she also landed in the... something. It was dark and quite difficult to see by this time. John goes up to where Philip and Becca are standing and Philip is standing in a mud bog past his knees. Thick, thick stinky mud.

"Oh great," I think. I start taking pictures while John tries to pull Philip out of the mud... with no success. There is some concern that Phillip is losing his shoes. What will we do if he has no shoes to wear and where do we find more? Becca was fortunate that she was able to slow down enough that she was only ankle deep in mud. She easily climbed out of the bog, but John could not get Philip out. Philip finally had to climb out as best he could, bracing against John, who was trying not to fall into the mud himself. Top of the Rock was out. We walked through the park followed by our stinking, muddy children until we found a water fountain. Becca cleaned her shoes and Philip's shoes. The problem was that we really couldn't go anywhere at all with Philip looking the way he did... not even the subway. There was no choice- he had to undress in Central Park. He hid behind a tree on a hill while his sister scraped the mud off his pants and washed them out as best she could. Finally (and thanks to the darkness) we were able to leave the park with them. We weren't sure any restaurant would let us in with wet, smelly children, but soon our problem was solved when it began to rain. Now everyone was wet and smelly! We hiked several blocks to our intended destination, the Afghan Kebob House and found it to be small, dark and welcoming to wet, smelly tourists. It was definitely unusual food and surprisingly, the kids ate with gusto. Who knew they would enjoy middle eastern food? Nathanael was falling asleep in his chair and it was already 11:00 in the evening. We dragged ourselves back to the hotel, made everyone speed-bathe, and fell into bed again.

Saturday, May 27- Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

We are exhausted! Pack up again, load the van again, and head out. No laundry this time. We got stuck for a very long time in a line of traffic trying to exit the Holland Tunnel. John commented that we were probably the only family van with a car top carrier from the south driving the streets of Manhattan on this day, and he was probably right. We headed to Amish Country in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It rained on us as we drove down the New Jersey Turnpike in a 15 mph traffic jam. The van began acting up again, but John was determined not to worry about it. Before too long, the jam cleared up, and so did the rain... and the van was ok. We theorized that the mechanic in Boston was right: something electrical was going on with the van and as long as the weather stayed dry, maybe we would make it home.

We stayed at Eby Farm, a working dairy farm run by a Mennonite family that was also a Bed and Breakfast. It was such a relief to leave the chaos of New York behind! The kids were delighted to find that our host family also had four children close in ages. We were staying in a small apartment in their 200-year-old farm house which had a full kitchen, so we headed to the grocery to pick up lunch items. After lunch, John and I napped while the kids played. They were having lots of fun unwinding in their kid-way and were very disappointed when we said we were leaving for dinner. We ate at a family style restaurant called Plain and Fancy where they seated us with a family from- the Bronx! The food was served in large bowls that we passed around the table, and we had a fun time getting to know Albert and his wife and 2 year old daughter. He was a hoot! After dinner, the kids and I shopped in the gift shop and we went back to the farm and fell into bed again.

Sunday May 28- Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

We got up in the morning and went to the Mennonite church with our host family. They are not old order Mennonites, and it was a pleasant surprise to see how amazingly similar their church and our home church are. Afterward, we were planning on taking the kids to eat lunch on the Strasburg Railroad train, but when we saw the Memorial Day lines, we kept on driving. We stopped at Miller's Smorgasbord and had another delicous Pennsylvania Dutch dinner... mmmm!

We spent the rest of the day napping and vegetating on the farm. Our kids ran all over the farm with the Eby kids, played with the kittens and bunnies, fed the baby calves, and spent several hours building a dam in the creek. John fashioned a homemade fishing pole, borrowed some tackle and actually caught a fish. We milked a cow and watched the milk gathering operation. We sat out on the porch and watched the sunset. After we put the kids to bed, we sat out on the porch while night fell. It was so peaceful to hear the Amish buggies clip-clopping along the road as they headed home from their Sunday evening activities. We were thankful for the chance to rest at this farm and we were ready to get home.

Monday May 29- Lexington, KY

Mapquest did so well for us until today. Oh, we knew there were mountains in West Virginia, but how bad could it be? The van said "VERY BAD!" The drive was beautiful. Northwest Maryland and West Virginia are surely some of the most scenic drives in the country. And the weather was clear and beautiful. But after several hours of 5% and 7% mountain grades, the van began to seriously protest. We were very grateful to make it to back to Aunt Mattie's at 9:30 in the evevning. Just one more day, van, one more day!

Tuesday May 30- Home Again

Aunt Mattie and Uncle Frank flew in to Lexington so they could be home when we came back through and we were glad to visit with them. We also stopped in to visit Granny before heading home. And despite a rainshower on the way home- please make it, van!- we are home again, and exceedingly grateful to be here. There's just no place like home.

The Great Adventure Part I

Tuesday May 16- Lexington, KY

We did manage to leave in the afternoon as planned, so things were looking up for the beginning of the Grand Adventure. We arrived in Lexington at my Aunt and Uncle's home at about 9 pm. Aunt Mattie and Uncle Frank live on a horse farm where they breed and board Thoroughbred horses. (This is not something they've always done, but that's a story for some other time.) We all love going there; it's a mini-vacation in itself just to visit! They were unable to be there for this visit, so we had their huge house to ourselves. They left lots of junk food for the kids to snack on, along with lots of goodies for breakfast. Although we were disappointed to miss Mattie and Frank, it was a fun way to begin the trip!

Wednesday May 17- Niagara Falls, Ontario

We headed north toward Niagara Falls. The internet directions said to go around Cleveland, but John said he had never been to Cleveland and he was determined to go. He called a family member to see if she could find a neat place to eat on the internet. After a good bit of research (this is Cleveland, after all) she said there was a great historic place downtown called the Arcade that was built by Rockefeller and had shops and restaurants, etc. As we drove into Cleveland, we saw people swatting at bugs, millions and millions of these little mosquito-looking things. And lots of boarded up buildings. We asked several people where the Arcade was, and everyone gave different directions. We finally found it, parked and tramped through the front door at 3:50... 10 minutes before it closed. We did have a choice of restaurants- Arthur Treacher's (fast food seafood), fast food Chinese, and a fast food sub place. Sigh. We ate subs. The good news? It was double punch day and we received a free Philly Cheesesteak. Bugs, boards and very fast Fast Food... The consensus is that Cleveland deserves its reputation as the armpit of the universe.

The weather was beautiful all day and the van only made unhappy sounds occasionally. We tried not to worry about it. As we reached Canada around dusk, the rain began. There are two parts to Niagara Falls- the ritzy expensive area with gorgeous botanical gardens and fabulous views of the Falls, and the cheesy touristy area a la Gatlinburg. Guess where we stayed? We were just a short jaunt to the Falls, so we put the kids in ponchos and walked down to see them (they light them up with colored lights at night) before we went to play at an Arcade (a real arcade). We ate a really late supper at an exorbitantly expensive Ruby Tuesday, went back to the hotel and crashed.

Thursday May 18- Albany, NY

Still rainy. But the plan for the morning was to get wet anyway, so it didn't matter. We were on the first boat out to the Falls, the Maid of the Mist, where they give you ponchos and take you right up to them. The American Falls are nice, but the Canadian Falls are incredible and it is truly an awesome experience to be surrounded on three sides by walls of roaring, rushing water. After we got back, Nathanael said, "But I wanted the boat to go under the falls!" Can't please everyone, I guess. After warm showers, we stopped for souvenirs and waffle cones before heading on our journey.

It rained all the way to Albany, but it was neat to follow the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany. We got to Albany in enough time to let the kids play in a park-like area behind the hotel and for Becca to take a slide through dog poop. We cleaned up and went to eat at Buca di Beppo, a family style Italian restaurant, where you order the food in family-size platters and the decor is the shmaltziest Italian you've ever seen. The kids loved it! The van continued to freak out occasionally, but always returned to normal. We continued to hope for the best.

Friday May 19- Framingham, MA

Today was supposed to be a quick drive to Boston, just 2 1/2 hours, but there was an accident on the Massachusetts Turnpike involving a methane truck, and our quick trip became a day-long ordeal. And the transmission on the van finally gave out. What a day. Ok, there was good news... We had to get off the Turnpike several exits early and take alternate routes through the most picturesque towns you've ever seen. And we didn't lose all of our transmission (yet), just third gear, causing us to all hold our breath every time we had to climb one of the frequent hills in the area. We were feeling thankful that we made it all the way to Framingham, our destination just outside of Boston. We arrived at 5:00, just enough time to frantically try on tuxes for the wedding tomorrow and dress for the rehearsal dinner at 7:00. What a day.

Saturday May 20- The Wedding

We are staying at a Residence Inn and are happy for the space, the indoor pool and the hot breakfast. After breakfast, Aunt Laurie and I took the kids and their cousin Hannah to the pool while we did laundry, and John and Uncle Mike found a transmission shop for the van and a rental vehicle. We were thankful to at least have made it to Boston, where we were planning on staying for a few days anyway, and where there are multiple options for our fix-it needs.

The city of Framingham is beautiful, with huge water reservoirs everywhere and quaint colonial churches and saltbox homes. It's enough to make you want to take up painting even if you are not an artist! John finally figured out why the Massachusetts Turnpike is so pretty too: no billboards. Just miles of trees, reservoirs and rolling hills. Just gorgeous.

Philip and Ben are Ringbearers in Uncle David's wedding and John is a groomsman, so they had to head over to the Country Club at 3 pm. Laurie and I took the other kids and Great Grandma and Grandpa an hour later, where we sat around waiting for pictures until the wedding at 6:30. The wedding was beautiful and lots of fun. We ate and danced all night. Somewhere deep within the recesses of our gene pool, the kids all found The Dance Gene. Becca is a dancing machine! She is lots of fun to watch. Philip has some fantastically fancy footwork; Ben has rhythm and cool moves; and Nathanael just likes to spin around. John Mark will only line dance, or occasionally walk across the dance floor like an Egyptian. The party ended at midnight and we were all glad to flop into bed. I got some great pictures, which I'll try to post some time.

Sunday May 21

Grandma and Grandpa came over for breakfast and then we went swimming and took naps. It feels like we have been traveling for weeks already! We ate a late lunch with Grandma and Grandpa at Union Oyster House in Boston, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the country. It was a really neat place and the seafood was yummy!

Across from the restaurant, there was a memorial plaza dedicated to the millions of people who died in the Holocaust. There were six tall glass monuments, each with four sides that you could walk through, and each monument represented of one of the Nazi concentration camps. Each monument was about five stories high and each glass wall was etched from top to bottom with millions of the numbers that had been tattooed onto the prisoners. As you walked through each monument, steam rose from gratings in the ground, representing the gas chambers. It was definitely a somber experience, akin to what I felt when we visited Ground Zero in NYC.

Grandma and Grandpa are off to other parts of the country now and we are free of family obligations and are on our own again. Tomorrow John has to go back to the transmission place to talk to the mechanic before he begins work (and hopefully they will be able to tell exactly what is wrong with it) and also exchange this rental car, a Pacifica which is woefully inadequate for our family, for a larger vehicle. We are moving to a hotel in Cambridge tomorrow night so we can get to the attractions in Boston a little easier, and then we are heading to Plymouth for two nights. We are praying that the van can be fixed by the time we need to leave Plymouth, since it is only an hour away. This is definitely becoming a trip to remember!

Off We Go!

At least, I hope so. John was in a terrible mood this evening over a project at work that might delay our departure. I'll think positive though. As ambivalent as I am about this vacation, I have worked my hiney off getting ready for it, so I am ready to go.

• Laundry is done (at least, it was as of Sunday night...)
• Cat-Plant sitter is ready
• Itinerary is planned
• Clothes are packed (at least, the kids' are... that was an ordeal!)
• Shopping is done (I hope)
• Refrigerator is cleaned out
• Errands are run (with still more to do before we leave!)
• New windshield is on van (as of this morning)

And a bunch more things have been done (and are still left to do) but regardless, at some point we will be off, hopefully sooner rather than later. Please pray that our van makes the trip. (We've had lots of vehicle issues lately.) I don't know if I'll be able to post on the trip or not, but I'll try. This is our first extended tour as a family... it will be interesting to see how it goes!

The plan is to stay Tuesday night with my aunt and uncle in Lexington, and then the first planned stop on our journey is Niagara Falls, Canada before we head toward Boston.

Off we go!

Motherhood

I love K-Mart's new Mother's Day commercial. A little boy is sitting on the potty and hollers, "Mommy! I need you!" before the announcer informs us that mom deserves something special today. I would have to agree. Mothers do the most thankless things. John commented that our kids are completely oblivious to most of the things I have done for them, which is very true. After all, who can remember being potty trained? (And who would want to?) Oh, the joys of motherhood.

I remember when I was a young mother-to-be. I worried about being a mom. Would I do it right? How would I know when he needed new shoes? What would I do when he threw up all over the place? Why didn't babies come with an instruction manual?

And in the way of mothers throughout the ages, I learned the answers. Would I do it right? Yes and No. How would I know when he needed new shoes? You can't squeeze the old ones onto his feet anymore. What do I do when he throws up all over the place? The best you can. Why don't babies come with an instruction manual? I still don't have an answer for that one, but I am very thankful that babies and boobies work well together.

But in their own way, babies are easy. Sure, they cry and poop a lot, but they don't talk back, lose their shoes right before leaving for church, or tell the dinner guests how we cleaned house by cramming everything into mom's room before they arrived.

As my children enter their teenage years, I'm entering a new stage of motherhood and I have a new-found appreciation for all the veteran mothers who have turned out well-adjusted, happy adult children. My prayers have changed; they are no longer, "Oh please let him burp!" but, "Please don't let me mess up my kids too badly!"

Because as children get older, they tend to bring out your worst personality traits at the very worst times. You understand why some animal mothers eat their young. You find yourself saying things you never dreamed you would say: "Only one person on the toilet at a time!" (little boys in particular seem to think it's fun to pee in unison); "Fish do NOT like rootbeer!"; "Babies do NOT eat lettuce!" (Ok, in all fairness, this was said to the child's grandfather, who decided that since the baby kept trying to eat the houseplants, he would just feed him lettuce instead); and the classic, "What were you THINKING???"

As I've cleaned countless bottoms, mopped up myriads of spills and washed innumerable loads of laundry, I've often thought to myself, "I don't get paid enough for this!" It's true. Mothers don't get paid enough for all the things they do, but at least I now know why: It's because motherhood is priceless.

Happy Mother's Day to us all.

Almost Done!

The Children's Chorus concert last night was lots of fun. A third of the chorus members are homeschooled students. Below is the picture I took for our homeschool yearbook. Each child received a medal based on the number of years they've been in the chorus.

I only have *one more* school-related obligation for this school year, and that will be over on Monday, with the last meeting of our 4-H club until August. I haven't been this excited about the end of school since high school.
**********

Becca and Philip were recently discussing Astronomy class with their dad:
Becca: I like Saturn best- it's covered with all kinds of gasses.
John: What gasses?

Philip: Like methane...
Becca: That's not Saturn- it's Uranus!

(At this point, John is doubled over with laughter, while the kids are standing around going "What... what?")

****************************

Blog Update: My mom reports that she sang "You Are My Sunshine" with the Sweet Adelines in competition in Orlando a couple of weeks ago. She says wonders will never cease. I'd have to agree.

*****************************

I found the Civil War costume. We discovered it while we were desperately searching for John Mark's tuxedo pants, which he had wadded in the back of his closet. Lacking a clothes hanger and too lazy to go get another one out of the laundry room, one of the boys had hung a shirt over the costume on its hanger. Just a week too late (sigh).

*****************************

Still folding laundry. The story of my life.

Strawberry Season

The kids have lucked out this strawberry season. The grumpy old man on the corner, who has an enormous garden- inluding a U-pick strawberry patch- has decided he likes them. John got up on his roof and cleaned off the snow two winters ago when we had that huge snowfall, and also helped the man's son get his car unstuck in that same snow. Ever since then, he has actually been friendly, in his own way.

Last summer he gave us a huge box of potatoes (we ate potatoes until they were coming out our ears- potato soup, potato casserole, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, baked potatoes, boiled potatoes...); several ears of corn; a couple of cantaloupe; tomatoes, cucumber and zuchinni; a bunch of purple hull peas (which the kids were not thrilled about); and watermelon out the wazoo. We were eating a watermelon a day and finally we couldn't eat them all and hauled a load to church to give away. John says its the best garden we've ever had!

Anyway, this week John Mark and Becca have been going over to help him pick strawberries to sell and as payment, he gives them a bucket of ones that are "too small". The kids are smart enough to know they have a good thing going. We've been enjoying strawberry shortcake, and today I'll probably stop at the store and get some pie shells.

**************************************

Up for today: Worship committee meeting and laundry, laundry, laundry. I have a 99 cent coupon from Blockbuster, so I'll probably stop and get a movie to watch tonight while I fold all this laundry. Since John is working, I can get a chick flick. The kids have their Spring Choral Concert tonight at First Christian, but John is so swamped at work that he won't be able to go. He is desperately trying to get these overwhelming projects done before we leave next week.

************************************

The Songbook is FINISHED!!!! (Doing a dance and clapping wildly) It was a real pain in the rear.

Beans and Bats

We got the garden in on Monday. We have bush beans, pole beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, pumpkin, squash, zucchini, eggplant and gourds ("Gourds??" asked John in disgust). Yes, I want gourds to paint. Nathanael wanted to grow hotdogs and I'm not totally sure he understood the explanation for why we couldn't.

We also planted sunflowers, marigolds and zinnias around part of the perimeter. We had a slight problem when it was time to plant. Rebecca and I had begun seeds several weeks ago in the little peat pot green houses, but the sunflowers, gourds and cantaloupes were outpacing everything else and we moved them out early, filling their spaces with new seeds. It all got confusing very quickly and we had to do seed identification to figure out which plants were which. I think we've got it figured out, but this could be interesting!

Yesterday I took the kids to the Bat Encounter at the River Museum, since John Mark and Becca will be studying them in Zoology in the fall.

It was pretty cool; they had live bats to display and they had a receiver so we could hear the bats as they echo-located (or whatever the verb is). Even Nathanael was impressed! Can you see the bat in the photo with us? She was hanging upside down on the branch. She is a large fruit-eating bat from some other part of the world and was very curious about all the people around her. Apparently, bats are very beneficial creatures to have around, since they eat thousands of insects a day- especially mosquitoes. The bats we have here are called Large Brown Bats, but they are actually quite tiny and pretty cute. Maybe we will build a bat house this summer and take care of our mosquito problem!

Today is the Day of the Songbook, so I'm off to church to work on it. We've been slowly chipping away at the house and the laundry. I have a good feeling about this!

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.