Mommy's Blog: Early April

Warmth and sunshine have been slow to arrive this spring. As I type, in fact, it is snowing to beat the band. On April 19th. I should never be surprised about this, yet I am always surprised about this.

At any rate. April so far. There have been a few lovely days... and a lot of rainy days... and there has been a lot of enjoying life in spite of the weather, too.

A comparatively lovely day at Wade Lagoon. When the cherry blossoms are in bloom and the perpetual rain let's up for a few moments, you fit in a quick walk with the flowers...

And when the sun is actually OUT on a Tuesday, you stop for a peek at the lake on the way to choir...

Egg dyeing with our friends. The grown-ups decided that we shall do this together always, even after the kids aren't living with us. I picture us, all old and grey(er), carefully crayoning on our eggs around the table...

Nat and I had a couple of nice little date nights, one of which was in the middle of parent-teacher conferences... :)

When you have a 45 minute window between conferences and the Bottlehouse is 5 minutes away...

I do love going to Parent-teacher conferences, actually. I like to see where my kiddos spend their days (hooray for in-person conferences again!) and get time to interact with their phenomenal teachers. Ivy's conferences were remarkably smooth. At times I feel that she is struggling a bit academically this year, but she seems to be holding her own and earning Honor Roll each term. Most teachers just noted that they would like to see her talk more in class, but shyness seems to be Ivy's thing these days. (the girl needs theater in her life to help her get over herself!) Math has been a challenge, so she will take pre-algebra next year instead of Algebra- we completely agreed with her teacher's recommendation on that one. In band her teacher said she could have the opportunity to switch to tuba or french horn next year if she'd like. They have 14 trombones in 6th grade band! Hoping she continues to enjoy her brass instrument (whatever it may be) through middle school because I'd love to see her participate in the marching band at Heights High!

Jack's teachers just blew me away with how well they understand our kiddo. This brilliant boy of mine continues to not work quite up to his potential, though things are infinitely better this year, with in-person school the whole time. His Social Studies teacher, after noting that Jack is doing well in the class, said, "He does seem to lack a sense of urgency." His engineering teacher, who does not pull any punches, just flat out said, "He's pretty lazy." I was not offended. It's quite true about my handsome boy. Jack seems to have done a careful caclulus for each of his 8 teachers, determining just how much slacking off he can do in each class, what misbehavior (mostly phone use or talking with friends) will be tolerated, and exactly how little work he can do and still maintain the minimum acceptable grades. While it is not the way I'd ideally like to see him using his intelligence, I kind of have to admire the work he puts in to do less work. One of these days, I'm hoping, he'll find a passion beyond video games that will fire up his "sense of urgency" and we will see what he can really do.

We've been trying to get my mom and her friend Kirk to church on Sundays now that things are back in person. Thought we'd swing by the Art Museum too. It turns out Kirk has never been to CMA. It was fun to show it to him, and he really enjoyed it, especially the Egyptian Art.

When the weather clears just a bit and its finally in the 50's-- it's time for Majestic Meadows! We (well, *I* really) dragged a very reluctant crew out of the house (the kids would just live in their rooms permanently if not forced to leave) and drove an hour to the farm. And it was completely worth it, as always. How can you NOT have a great time with these animals?

I got to cuddle a wallaby! I am in love. So were the kids.

This is Stella the albino miniature wallaby.

Jack took selfies with every animal.

Three-day-old miniature pot-bellied piglets! My heart. I don't ever want a pig for a pet but oh I loved these babies!

This baby alpaca was appropriately named "Baby" and had been bottle raised. The most snuggly alpaca I have ever met. He head-butted for hugs.

Oh! And Gus the camel!

A great happy hour with my teaching team. I am so grateful to have work friends finally! We had a blast. Here we are measuring who's the shortest. Double IPA's all around made it more fun than it maybe should have been.

Sometimes when you drive all the way out to Buckeye Sports Center to treat yourself to end-of-season sale skis only to find the selection poor and the prices high... you just go over and lose yourself in the Ledges for a while. Just like alpacas, wandering in ledges never fails to put our whole family into a better mood. (Jack actually did get new skis, after thinking about them all evening and then driving back out the next day. Nat is a really good dad.)

Early Easter celebration at our place. Since we decided to travel to NY over Easter weekend, we took my mom and Kirk to Palm Sunday and then hosted a holiday meal. It was festive and fun the whole time. I do love a Palm Sunday parade, and the band is back at church. Our in-person numbers are still slim but it is good to be back in the building. I get a lot more out of the service, it turns out, when I am not multi-tasking at home with Zoom church in the background!