kiddo meets calvin and hobbes

Kiddo had to write a comic strip as part of his homework last night.  Only, he didn't know what a comic strip was.  I tried to explain it, but I wasn't doing a very good job.  So out came my old Calvin & Hobbes books.

Kiddo, meet Calvin.

It turned out to be a pretty fun homework assignment.

itty bitty

Kiddo's flowers are growing!

He's a proud gardener.  :)

sun {finally!}

We've broken out the shorts and flip flops this week.  At long last!  It was reassuring to know that sunny days really do exist - we were beginning to wonder.

Kiddo has been busy decorating our sidewalks with drawings of roads and road signs.

He has also been unintentionally decorating himself.

And I have been busy wrestling with wood, screws and a drill. 

All I have to say is, I have renewed respect for carpenters.  Woodwork/carpentry is not my gift. 
But...our raised beds will hold dirt, even if they aren't exactly square or even.  And that's what counts.

(At least, that's what I keep telling myself...)

a few corrections

Kiddo has informed me that "Orange Cat" is really "Orange Kitty."  And Orange Kitty is a she, not a he.  As evidenced by the kittens she had this morning...

Mama and babies are all doing well!

stewed monkey heads and easter traditions

When I was growing up, I would wander into the kitchen where my mom was putting a meal together and ask an innocent question...

"What are we having for dinner?"

And for some reason, she found that annoying.  She would respond by saying something like "dinner" or "food" or "what do you think we're having?"  That drove me nuts.  I never understood why she couldn't just tell me what we were having to eat that night. 

Now I'm the one cooking dinner.

And my son will walk into the kitchen and say "what's for dinner?"

And I find that I am my mother's daughter.  I hear myself saying "what do you think we're having?" or "something edible."  Or I'll take a page from Calvin and Hobbes and respond with "stewed monkey heads" or "boiled cabbage and octopus sticks" or "brussel sprouts and liver."  Or, if I'm good, I'll bite my tongue, consciously fighting the instantaneous feeling of annoyance, and tell him the truth - "spaghetti" or "chicken stir fry" or "Cocoa Puffs."

Oh, help....Please tell me my mother and I aren't the only ones.

******

We dyed eggs this afternoon.  I love dying eggs!  I don't like to eat them, but I sure have fun making them pretty (or, in this case, watching Kiddo make them pretty).

We had a tongue thing going on today.  He comes by it honestly - I do it when I'm concentrating, too.

Some of the eggs weren't exactly dipped - they were kind of...plunked.

It made for some cool-looking spider web designs, though.

Happy happy colors!

******

One of my favorite Easter traditions when I was a girl was the Easter scavenger hunts my mom would put together.  We would often have a traditional egg hunt, but each of us kids would have one egg with our name on it that no one else would be able to pick up.  That egg would have a slip of paper inside with a clue.  From there, my brothers and I would all have individual scavenger hunts with unique clues.  The clue in the first egg would tell us where to find the next egg and so on.  Eventually, the clues led us to our Easter baskets.

I've continued this tradition recently with our son, and it has become one of his favorites as well.  In fact, for the past two years, he has been so excited about it that he has made a scavenger hunt for me to do, too. 

Today's rain necessitated an indoor hunt.

 
When he finally got to his Easter basket, he found the softest, cuddliest cat you'd ever want to meet.

 

Awwww.

He came with the name "Cobbler," but was quickly renamed "Orange Cat."  Orange Cat is in good company.  He was soon introduced to some of Kiddo's other stuffed animals - buddies like "Gray Cat," "Black Cat," "Soft Duck," "New Duck" and "White Duck."  Creative?  Not especially.  Descriptive?  You betcha.

******

Tomorrow we are rising early, eating breakfast at church, and rushing through multiple music group rehearsals before the service (Hubby is involved in three).  After church, we run home to pick up our contributions to Easter dinner (salad and dessert), and then we are off to my brother- and sister-in-law's for the afternoon.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is calling for a chance of thunderstorms.  Tonight when he was praying before bed, Kiddo prayed that God would "cancel the thunderstorms, so that we can be outside all day for Easter."  I think he is looking forward to checking on the goats and chickens again, playing foursquare with his cousins, and decorating his aunt and uncle's driveway with sidewalk chalk.  I'm looking forward to a lot of those things, too!  :)

May you have a blessed and wonderful Easter tomorrow!

good friday

                    He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we 

                    should desire him....
                    Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low 

                    esteem.

                    Surely he took up our pain  and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by 

                    God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
                    But he was pierced for our transgressions...the punishment that brought us peace was on 

                    him, and by his wounds we are healed....

                    He was assigned a grave with the wicked...though he had done no violence, nor was any 

                    deceit in his mouth.

                    After he has suffered, he will see the light of life...by his knowledge my righteous servant 

                    will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities....
                    He poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.  For he bore 

                    the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. 

                    Isaiah 53

******

I do not like Good Friday.  It is sobering.  It is not a "fun" holiday.  As painful as the splinters in my hand were this afternoon when we were building our garden beds, they were nothing in comparison to the nails in His hands that day.  And he bore the pain for me.  And for you.

I don't like Good Friday.

But without Friday, there would be no Sunday.
So today I am thankful for Good Friday. 
Because Friday led to Sunday.
Hallelujah.

scoring high, planting seeds, worms for dinner

I think I scored a "10" on the klutz-o-meter today.  I managed to rip a nail, get stuck on the zip line at the playground, fall off the rings on the same playground, nearly strip the bit on an electric drill while trying to build raised garden beds this afternoon, give myself multiple splinters while building said beds, and splashed myself with bleach.  The only thing I didn't do was burn myself while making dinner, which I have been known to do with some frequency.  Someone should send me to bed now, where I'll be relatively safe.

Hubby had the day off today, which was wonderful.  Despite the threatening forecast and chilly weather, we headed out to Home Depot and brought a pile of lumber (there are days when I love having a minivan). 

I am building raised beds and Hubby is working on another garden project (although, as it turns out, Hubby inherited the raised beds as well - despite my early success using a drill last summer, I was an utter failure at drilling/screwing two pieces of wood together this afternoon.  Thank goodness I had Hubby to come to my rescue...love you, Dear!). 

Speaking of the van, if you were to close the back door and look at the top of the van, you would find some odd white scratches above the window.  "Huh...how odd," you would say.  And then you would turn to me and ask, "how did they get way up there?"  And then I would sheepishly tell you that earlier this week, I backed the van out of the garage before the garage door was all the way up.  And then you would laugh.  And add a few more points to my klutz score.

******

We started gardening today! 

 
In addition to Home Depot, we hit the garden supply store around the corner.  Hubby and I picked up some blueberry bushes (yummmmm...) and Kiddo picked out some flower seeds to put in his flower bed.  Our garden is still too soggy to plant (and it was pretty chilly today), but after we had had enough of wrestling with lumber out in the garage, we pulled our seed-starting supplies out of our dilapidated garden shed (and gave them a long soak in a bleach solution after finding mouse droppings and a mouse nest in them - eeew, eeew, and double eeeew).

Kiddo was eager to get a head start on his flowers.

Gloriosa daisies, painted daisies, nasturtiums, morning glory, zinnias, marigolds, gazanias, rudbeckia and probably a few others I'm forgetting.

Crossing our fingers that they grow!

******

Here is Mrs. Robin. 

She has been working hard all day, nesting.

(and then her photographer went and botched the shot by getting 

too close to the window through which she was shooting, 

accidentally breathing on it, and getting it all foggy)

After toiling all day, Mrs. Robin decided it was time for a bath.

"Honey, while I'm in the shower, could you put dinner on the table please?"

"Sure, Dear, no problem...mmmm...this looks good!"

"I'm almost done!  Just washing out the shampoo!"

"mmmm!"  (munch nibble slurp scoff)

"Honey?....Honey?....Where's the food?!"

"Huh?  I...uh...I don't...uh...I mean...It was here a minute ago..."

critters

Our pond is busy today.

 

The fish and the frog are welcome to stay, but I'm not excited (AT ALL) to see the one lurking in the background.  Or his six cousins (that I've counted so far) who are hiding nearby.  This distressed damsel may be calling in valiant Prince Hubby to slay the fearsome beasts.  Or at least relocate them...somewhere else.

kids with kids {and kittens, too}

First, there was church.  Lots of music.

(hi, Hubby!)

Lots of kids and palm branches. 

And Jesus, too.

 

 

After church, we ran out to Hubby's brother's house (along with another brother and his family - are you confused yet?) to visit Hubby's mom and keep her company while Hubby's brother and sister-in-law got away for a few hours.

She is a sweetheart.  Last night my sister-in-law told us that when they were putting her to bed a few days ago, my mother-in-law asked them if they loved Grammy (what her grandkids always call her).  And my sister-in-law replied, "Of course we love Grammy!"  And my mother-in-law responded, "There isn't much of Grammy left." ...Kind of hits me right there.  I had been sitting with her earlier, wondering what was going on in her head, what she wanted to say but couldn't, wondering what she was thinking.  Sometimes it seems quite obvious that some part of the "real" Grammy is still in there.  Yesterday she was singing hymns and making herself laugh.  It was pleasant just to sit with her and listen.

While at my brother-in-law's, we also got to visit the goat pen.  When we first arrived, we encountered the guards:

Eventually they decided we weren't a threat, and they let us close to these little cuties:

(mama goat is making sure her little guy is okay)

Mama was happy to see that Hubby's brother (the one visiting, not the one who lives there - too many brothers) and his girls came bearing gifts.

More cuteness:

And in the goat shed, there is a box.  And if you peek in the box, like this:

You'll find this:

And, being a mellow sort of mama, she'll even let you do this:

 

And if you are 7 (or 35), you will think that is pretty cool.

******

A few have asked about the Nikon picture.

My sister-in-law was shooting us.

And we were shooting this:

This is the cut-and-paste craft station at the Crayola Factory.  We heart the Crayola Factory.  

******

I am staying up way past my bedtime watching the Phillies try to pull out a tie game.  12 innings already.  Ryan Howard needs to whack it hard so that I can go to bed.  And that's all I have to say about that.

******

Weather forecast has sun in it this weekend - maybe we'll actually get out in the garden!  Woohoo!

******

Howard did not whack it hard.  But the other team did.  Game over.  Good night!