School shenanigans

I'm so excited to be back to school! I'm having a blast in preschool most days, and we've even had two butterfly releases. The open one, above, had about three days of containment before we let him go, and of course, his neighbor had erected the chysalis right under the zipper of the container we needed to open to release the first one! And when we removed the remaining Very Hungry Caterpillar to use his container to corral the first butterfly until we could get him outside, said Caterpillar made a break for it. Fortunately, everyone ended up where they belong and it looks like our caterpillar is done gorging himself and is now upside down, contemplating his perfect spot on the roof of his container. Here's hoping the temps don't drop tremendously during the two weeks he's doing his thing out of sight before his release....

Here's me on my first day as a preschool aide. We've decided to take it month by month as there's a lot of moving parts like kids who need one on one attention now who may not later, thus shuffling personnel around. For now, I'm thrilled to be part of this team, loving on these kiddos, and having a ball singing songs, supervising lunch, lamenting that children don't always want to nap though adults usually do, helping with crafts, reminding that we go UP the ladder and DOWN the slide, and so on. It is a LONG day for small people. Don't forget to tell a teacher how much they are appreciated! There really are heroes without capes- I work with a bunch of them!

"First" day of preschool!

 

Sit-rep

 Not much to report as we're in various stages of "my throat is getting scratchy" and "I can't breathe out of the right side of my head" and "I didn't sleep well last night." Germs are making their rounds, again, and I'm slated to be in preschool next week so I'm trying to get everyone healthy here before bringing home fresh, new germs. Dada's been in town, which is always nice, and the sun is attempting to shine more brightly, which is definitely welcome. It's not supposed to be above freezing here at night for at least the next week, so we'll take our wins where we can get them. I can't WAIT to rescue my sundresses from winter storage, but I know we have a ways to go yet. Some of us are counting down the days until spring break, which don't align this year, so I'll be up early every morning anyway. It's all good. Thankful for heat and sunshine and spring flowers and hot, running water and friends who send funny texts and that we have lots of boxes of tissues. And for cheese. 

The Murphy bed

Before:

Our downstairs guest bedroom has become Dada's office since he now works from home. We found various tables around the house and got them in there months ago so he'd have someplace to put his computer with multiple monitors, his microscopes, and so forth. There was also a night stand, a rocking chair (which Pap made) and a corner hutch (also made by Pap). Dada has plenty of boxes of broken glass mailed to him in the hopes that he can determine the hows and whys of the breakage. He'd gotten good at yeeting (okay, not really) stuff onto the bed, but somehow the idea of a space-saving Murphy bed surfaced, and Pap went to work. As is often the case with home improvements, it turned into a whole-house project: 

Right about here was the part where there was some grumbling about it not fitting and "maybe we need to saw some off" and "maybe we need to try ____ ," at which point I beat feet elsewhere and tried not to panic at the thought of it becoming a Farmhouse Project and thus having our house torn up for the foreseeable future. 

 There were some breaks in the work, like for Damon's first day of real school since last March. Pap and Precious escorted him to the bus stop, but though we waited for 20 minutes the bus didn't show and he needed to get to another elementary school for his gifted class that day, so I took him. We had preschool flashbacks as it's the same route we took way back then. I got him there on time, the bus brought him home, and later in the week everybody seemed to know where to be when. We'll see how it works out tomorrow when we do it again...

You can see the ironing board on the far left. It had been kept under the bed as I don't iron. Not sure where to put it now!

Below: This is the back of the corner hutch, which has been relocated to the Old Lady Room, taking the corner where the Teething Chair used to reside. Why do we call it that? There are teeth marks all along the arms from where Hinrew was just tall enough to gnaw on them when he was small. 

The rocking chair that Pap made is still sitting beside the kitchen, but at least it's not in there anymore like it was when I rounded the corner and lo and behold there was Pap, taking a break, rocking away while reading a book in the middle of the kitchen floor! We are making progress.

I was prepping to make homemade Pioneer Woman meatballs when the guys brought an air compressor through from the garage, cord and all. Things were a little bit nuts for awhile, but they cleaned up after themselves and the meatballs were made and devoured. I think they lasted two days. Might be a record.

Ta da! Newly installed Murphy bed and Teething Chair in its new corner. I told Pap he needed to sleep in it at least once to make sure it wouldn't close up on anyone, like my mother, like they do in the cartoons. He just laughed. I hope that means he's confident in his carpentry skills, haha! Time will tell! 

Maybe it'll be a good hiding place for me the next time I need to escape... I'll have to think about that.

                                               After:

Just don't try to open it expecting to get to Narnia. We have a closet for that. 

Midweek report

Sorry about the radio silence. We're all fine. Just busy. Apparently crazy is the new normal. We fit right in.

We got to enjoy some nice weather over the weekend, so there was a lot of running around outside. Dada has picked a spot for a garden, so he was spraying the RoundUp to kill off anything in the area so that he can till up the soil and get that all going. It's a nice, sunny spot, so keep your fingers crossed that it will produce. He even has an asparagus patch in mind, though you don't get yields from one right away.

There are pool noodle remains all over the yard from the epic battles that were taking place. I hear Prince Humperdink in my head, "they were both masters... it ranged all over..." We had the Richards crew down Friday night for dinner and a playdate. We'd thought we'd go bowling, but the kids were having so much fun just being outside in beautiful weather that we started a fire in the firepit instead and let them goof off until way past our kids' bedtimes. It was great. We all really needed it.

This week has the usual, karate, school, we're making it to moms' group today, laundry, dishes, homework, sheets, etc. Damon helped me with an Aldi run yesterday before school. He came home from preschool, zipped on his puffy vest, and completely crashed sound asleep in the big chair. Must have worn the poor guy out. I don't know how he's going to make it through all day kindergarten. I need a nap just thinking about it.

Remind me to post about the lightning bug quote. You don't want to miss it.

Must dash. There's a winter coat clad- sunglasses on his face- shoed kid clinging to my arm, telling me I smell like lotion. He's excited to see his friends at moms' group, some of whom we haven't seen since before Christmas.

Have a wonderful week! And be on the lookout for lightning bugs! ;)

Snippets of the end of Winter

 

This little cutie came along to keep me company while we got the carpet cleaned at the old house. He supervised from the counter and ate his peanut butter and jelly on puffy bread (that's a hamburger bun for those of you who don't have puffy bread in your homes). He was very impressed with Blake, the carpet cleaner, and we would definitely recommend him to anyone in need of superbly clean carpets done by a professional.

 

The cutie below was picked up in the driveway seconds after she got off the bus, and I laid one on her as per Damon's orders. He loves it when we grab her on our way in from preschool, and he LOVES it when I "give Cawwie lips!" You can draw your own conclusions of how SHE feels about the whole situation...

 

 

We girls in front of the fire...

 

and Triskal outside enjoying the snow. Ha!

 

 

We were actually outside that day, too, as someone decided that the best time for pruning apple trees is in the dead of winter. So, there's Dada, pruning away. We're new at this, so any advice you may have, please feel free to send it our way.

 

 

As much as I love freezy trees, I am SO GLAD it is warming up!

 

Shivers and Shenanigans

 

Virgil Eugene, our garden Gnome, used to have a red and black striped hat. It's gone missing. We have our suspicions as to the identity of the culprit. We live in a college town now, and are pretty sure it's highly unlikely that his HAT would go missing while HE stayed behind if college students were involved. At any rate, his new hat:

 

 

This week has brought a school cancellation and two 2 hour delay days so far. This morning it was foggy and damp when we woke up to find someone had dredged every tree and bush through powdered sugar:

 

Poor freezy Cheeky Beaky needed a scarf. Thanks, Kate, for the homemade one. If it grows legs like Virgil Eugene's hat, I shall be most put out.

 

Lalaith Havens, our new home, in the grip of January. Lalaith means "laughter" in Elvish, according to Tolkien, and we thought that would fit perfectly. We have already laughed a lot here, and are looking forward to many more years of laughing in our haven from the rest of the world.

 

 

No wonder birds fly south!

 

Did I mention that today it is 6 degrees out?

 

Damon had 3 other students with him in class yesterday. That's it. His teacher said she hasn't seen her morning class for a month. I guess there IS something to be said for afternoon preschool! I haven't had a full kid-free day since December 18. Crazy!

 

We're having some new friends over for dinner tonight. The Decadent Chocolate Bundt Cake is already baked and cooling, but I have a lot more prep work to do, so I'm off.

 

Stay warm!

 

Comparison shopping

 

This photo, above, is Damon. He's four and a half and in preschool.

 

This photo, below, is Liam's preschool picture.

 

And this is Damon, four and a half, asleep in the big chair. Some of you already saw it on Facebook.

 

Dada's decided we really need to start writing their names on the backs of photographs since they look so much alike.

 

Ha.

 

Who has printed out photographs!?

First half of November

 

We've certainly run the gamut of crazy November weather. I don't know how it's possible that every single year I forget how fickle fall is. We started off with gorgeous sunrises before the time change and have had snow since. Bah humbug! I prefer the sunrises to the snow any day.

 

Ick ick and double ick. You should see it all now. There's at least three inches out there on all those chairs, but I hear Sherri and crew have a foot on theirs, so I'm shutting up.

 

 

Okay, karate pictures. The big kids graduated from their orange belts to the purple belt level. That's their fourth stage of lessons, for those of you who are keeping track.

 

 

Now now, Care Bear, no kicking classmates off the stage.

 

Liam was selected by one of his teachers, Mr. Stanford, to spar a little bit. He was delighted, and he did an excellent job. You can see how proud Mr. Stanford is of their class a few photos down.

 

 

Great job, big kids! We enjoyed watching you!

 

And have we mentioned there's lots of leaves at the new house? Two Saturdays ago we had everyone out, including one Damonator dressed as Skeletor, raking and hauling leaves curbside. Since we don't have a curb, oh anyway...

 

 

There was a fair share of messing around, as you can see...

 

 

The one above is my favorite. Heh heh heh. Remember, you can always click on a photo to see it larger!

 

 

Yep, even I ended up in there. Twice.

 

 

Yesterday Dada borrowed a neighbor's leaf-sucker-upper-thingie and worked out front some more. Then it started to snow, and lo and behold, a two hour delay today. We got to shovel instead of rake. Yaaaaaay. Not.

 

Anyhoo, now it's already 2:30 and I still have some stuff to accomplish before leaving to get Damon from preschool, so I must go.

 

Happy birthday to Hinrew! We love you oodles and bunches and tons! Incidentally, everyone needs to quit with the birthdays. Every time a family member has a birthday, it snows. Just cut it out already.