Catching Up

We have been so busy this month of April and I am looking forward to a less busy/more time at home May.  The children finished homeschooling co-op for the year, the last swim lesson (of a 10 week program) ends on Monday.  Awanas only has the awards banquet left.  That leaves piano lessons and finishing up the homeschool year and then summer time!

Here is a little catch up, post Bend trip!  We spent the following week diving back into school and then little by little catching up from being gone and camping.  I really must keep in mind that a weekend camping adventure is several days of preparation followed by several days of unpacking and catch up!  Now that we have our new camping trailer, we are going to put together our camping kits so I don't have to pack the kitchen and bedding!  This should make it a little easier.  Garage sales here we come!  Can't wait to treasure hunt for our camping kitchen.  Can't wait to find lovely soft plush bedding for me to sleep in luxury (or more likely lie awake for hours in luxury!).  

The garden....oh my the garden...we did clean out the front beds when the weather was nice in January/February and we did get a couple of the terraces above the retaining wall covered with cardboard and mulch until I can get a more permanent garden planted up there.  But the spring weeds have covered everything in a thick carpet and so Friday, when the weather was so beautiful with a sunny warm weekend ahead, we decided to tackle the yard.  We completely weeded out the front bed and then went to my favorite nursery Dancing Oaks and actually bought some "garden bones" evergreen and structure plants to give the garden something more than a winter dirt scape.  I spent an entire afternoon finding the perfect landscaped plants and cringed spending the money on them since I usually just dig starts.  I spent a lot of time on placement, hoping that I was giving enough space and artistically arranging the colors.  I planted the perennials and my mom stopped by and gave the ok for the "bones" and then we covered the garden with a thick layer of mulch.  I planted the second front bed with strawberries and mulched that in as well.  The following day, we tackled the tropical bed, rearranging some of the plants and giving it a heavy mulch layer as well.

Monday and Tuesday, we did short school days and spend most of our time outside, working on on the side bed - weeding, transplanting, emptying the pond barrels, and finally mulching it all in.  It isn't landscaped yet like the front but at least the weeds are gone.  And can I say, after so many loooong hours of weeding, mulching, digging....I was so sore!!  Every muscle in my body hurt.  But seeing so much get done and such a garden transformation was immensely satisfying.  Of course, it rained on and off the next 3 days and I was stuck inside back to chores and regular school.  I am just waiting for it to dry out enough to get back out there!





Saturday, at Dancing Oaks, was a beautiful warm day but rather hazy.  We spotted this mustard field from far off and just had to go investigate.  



Hot and tired children in the car.



Piano lessons are going well.  The children are learning so much and it is exciting to see them learning notes and playing simple songs.  I am hoping to continue with music throughout our homeschooling years.  I am so thankful that my parents have provided us the means to have music as a part of our schooling.

This is the view from our piano teacher's farm.  


Sunny days, mean doing school where ever you like!


The iPad attention sucker.  I am glad we don't have unlimited screen time...the children would turn into zombies.  

I have 3 art collages done, another just waiting for the finishing touches, and the beginnings of a 4th on the corkboard.  I photographed the bottom two this week but am not happy with the pictures and need to find a better way of showcasing the art work.  



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