Spring has Sprung!

Easter Egg dyage

Some pretty cute Easter cookies, I like to think

Yeah, they'd had a little sugar . . .

Easter dinner
(Theo is absent from this and the egg-dying picture because he has taken to stripping down to a pair of nylon shorts whenever he's home)

I took Theo and Addy out for pictures afterward

I'm not good at it, but I did have good subjects

Didn't I?

Then on to some good times at the park

Did I mention that Regina is a great place to fly kites?

Because it is

Seriously. And how lucky are these kids to have Aaron for their dad?

Even Sera got in on the football action

It was a good day

April Flowers? In April?? Get out.

Just when I was ready to crown Regina the queen of cold and land of wintry desolation, she goes and gives me this April. There was one teensy little snow-shower, a couple of chilly arctic winds blowing through, but mostly lots of gorgeous, sunshiny days! We picnicked in the park, flew kites (because let me tell you, there's not a city anywhere that can compete with Regina for kite-flying), and very nearly had an outdoor egg hunt for Easter. Nearly. Easter dress wearing is a fundamental requirement for egg hunting, and it wasn't that warm.

The weekend before Easter, I finally got it together and put on a Passover dinner (Seder) for our family. I'm sure I got a few things wrong (I can't imagine any Jewish rabbi condoning our meal of pork with apples), but it was fun to dig up all the info on the internet and relive one of my favorite experiences from my time in Jerusalem 13 years ago. It helped us get into the Easter spirit, and to think more about the events leading up to the crucifiction and resurrection than we've done in previous years. I definitely plan to make this a yearly tradition in our family. Of course, it would have been lovely if I'd actually taken some pictures, but then where would my motivation to repeat it be?

During the week, we made Easter sugar cookies and dyed eggs, and then woke up to a gorgeous Easter morning the following Sunday. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and even little blades of green seemed to be pushing up through the ground. Even though it made us late for church, we took a few minutes for photos on the front porch. Good thing, because it was overcast and cold by the time we got back from church (and besides, the hair ribbons had come out by then anyway)! Since I'd forgotten Passover pictures, I made sure to take Easter dinner ones. Nothing like bright green asparagus and brilliant red strawberries. We lobbed a few of the strawberries into a pie crust for a fresh strawberry pie for dessert as well. Mmm.

Aaron's choral concert the next week was breathtaking. Performed in the largest cathedral in town, Knox Metropolitan, with their fantastic organist, Hart Godden, it was a concert I don't think any of us will soon forget. Aaron posted a video of the Sanctus on his website (it's the second one on the playlist) that you should really take a minute to listen to. I can't really say anything about it that would do it justice, so just listen (Aaron's disclaimer: he has no idea why the person who set up the camera centered it on him and didn't include the choir at all). While the Sanctus is stunning on its own, I have to add that it was even better in context, with the gorgeous Kyrie before, and finishing with the In Paradisum that makes me cry every time. One of these days I'll force him to post those as well. It made me think of the wonderful reunion that I know my Grandma Ruthie is waiting for with her husband Dean on the other side.

Pretty much every extra second of the rest of our time was spent putting more finishing touches on our house. And we're not out of the woods yet. This month we've painted baseboards and window frames, painted the living room, bathroom and kitchen, caulked a bunch of stuff, put in new vent covers, started switching out light switches and electrical outlets, reseeded the grass, and Aaron has somehow managed to plow through both US and Canadian tax returns. We had hoped to leave at the beginning of May for Disneyland, with our house on the market and everything, but with more projects still on the backlog (fence in the backyard, junk removal that we meant to have done as soon as we moved in, yard sale, painting downstairs, fixing carpet that came up with a slight water backup in March, and other stuff besides, we're pushing the trip back to the tail end of the month and forging ahead. Meanwhile, all this other work puts me way behind on regular housework like laundry and cleaning the floors. It's almost worse than last month. Maybe I'll get around to taking all the wonderful suggestions I got in the last post (thank you!) after we finish?

Not so many pictures in March . . .

. . . but there were a few. I figured I might as well post them now since the April queue is already getting full.

Could I be any luckier? I mean really, love notes in play-doh?

Theo and I on our way to The Lightning Thief--it was a fantastic boy-quest movie!

Addy must be paying attention in ballet or something--look at those toes! She comes up with such great costumes (especially when she's supposed to be cleaning up, as in this case)

This one is technically our Easter picture, but who doesn't love a preview?

The Long March

March really wasn't bad, especially compared to last year. We've had the usual assortment of coughs and colds, but I consider it an excellent sign that they came in March this year instead of May--here in Saskatchewan, a round of sickness is generally the surest harbinger of Spring. Still, the waiting can get old really quick. Outside, the snow and ice melted during the day then refroze overnight, making outdoor play a yucky, muddy mess. Our coat closets and shoe racks have been so overcrowded with both winter and spring wear that trying to open or close entryway doors is its own brand of crazy. And my affair with disorder is hardly a stable sort of thing--on the one hand messes and disorder drive me completely nuts, but on the other hand I hate hate hate spending my entire life cleaning them up. Since nothing really new happened this month (well, actually it did, but it's super-secret and we won't be spilling for a while yet), it's a good month to catch up with all the kids and their happenings.

Theo finally caught the fiction bug this month! I've been trying my best to get him reading some quality literature on his own for about two years now. I even bought the whole Harry Potter set (the American ones with the illustrations, which after long consideration, I have decided are superior, despite the occasional language changes, including that pesky "Sorcerer's Stone," rather than "Philosopher's Stone") over the holidays. Nothing. I couldn't get him to read one page without me, although he pretended like he had read it and told me all about the movie. Then, along came Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Not exactly what I had in mind, but definitely fiction. He read all the books in a matter of weeks and was hungry for more (if you haven't read them, trust me, they're hilarious). One week at the bookstore, he was watching the trailer for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, and he stumbled across the trailer for The Lightning Thief. So I told him I'd take him if he read it. We took the book home, and a week or so later both he and I were done with it. Now I'm halfway through Sea of Monsters, which he has already finished and moved on to The Titan's Curse. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure that we're over the threshold, and Theo will be a literature lover for life. Woohoo! In other Theo news, he has recently become even more obsessed with computers and electronics, if that's possible. He wants an iPod touch, an iPhone, a netbook, his own huge screen LCD TV, and a variety of other things which he's unlikely to acquire. However, we're trying really really hard to harness some of his greed and direct it toward household chores to earn money.

On to Addy, we've been trying to spend a little more time on reading with her also. Though she reads quite well, if there's something else around to do, she'll pick the something else every time. Junie B. Jones isn't quite her cup of tea the way it was for Theo, so I've been exploring around to find some books she'll enjoy. We've read a little over half of The Secret Garden together, and after I told her that The Little Princess was my favorite book in the world when I was her age (well, technically a bit older), she's read a bit of that one as well. It's tricky though, because while the content in books like that is exactly to her liking, the reading level is pretty advanced for a six-year-old, so she tires quickly. If you have good suggestions, be sure to send them my way! Addy and Sera are thick as thieves, and I can't imagine a better big sister than Addy. She teaches Sera all kinds of important stuff, like how to tidy up, how to make beautiful drawings, and how to make fart noises (oh wait, that's the boys--more on that later). More often, Addy can be found giggling. And giggling and giggling some more. It's pretty much her favorite pastime, and since it's so easy to get her going, the other kids love putting together silly words and waiting for her to put on her show (and it's most definitely a show). Whenever I get frustrated (which has been pretty frequent lately due to the virtually constant barrage of messes and cleaning), Addy is at my side saying things like "are you okay, Mom?" and "if you just smile it will make you feel better." It's good to know that she has learned to respond positively to stress (even if I haven't).

Emerson loves legos. Loves them. He spends a rather large chunk of every day putting together all kind of contraptions, and generally keeps quite a few of them in his room, even though he isn't supposed to. I need to figure out a way for him to play with the legos AND keep them cleaned up. He's also become enamoured of fart noises and the word poop. Oh, boys. We haven't gotten him into another preschool yet, and as the months roll by, it keeps growing less likely that we will. Mostly he hangs out with Sera and I, and we try to squeeze in shopping trips and library visits from time to time. He's probably too easygoing for his own good, as he doesn't complain much when I send him downstairs with his sister while I clean the house, but I know I need to be reading to him more and taking him on more outings. I think he's learned more reading skills from Super Why than from me. And if it's not yet clear, I need to figure out a new program on the house-cleaning thing before I lose my mind. I have seriously been feeling like a slave to my home lately.

Sera is convinced that she's big enough for everything. She did turn three, of course, which comes with a few priviliges, but it's pretty hard to tell her that she can't do something until she gets bigger--like playing outside by herself or staying up later--because she always comes back with "Uh-huh, I am big now, because I turned threeeeee!" Luckily she still takes great naps in the afternoon, but a side effect is that she has a hard time getting to sleep at night, and sometimes (frequently) wanders into our bedroom early in the morning to ask if it's time to wake up yet or to tell us about her dreams. Strangely, this hasn't awoken in me the desire to cut off the naps. I know it will probably happen next year when she has preschool or something, but until then, that break in the middle of the day is still a helpful thing for me.

As for Aaron, he's plugging away with his ensembles--all three of them, including the orchestra. They're preparing Faure's Requiem, which is one of my all-time favorite choral works, for a concert just after Easter. He's also been working on our super-secret surprise (which we seriously can't wait to reveal). It's been a really busy semester for him, filled with lots of travel. Just this month he's been to Florida, Indiana, North Dakota, and Ottawa. We've missed him during his absences, but are proud of all his hard work!

And me? If you can't tell, I'm a roller-coaster about the whole house-cleaning thing. I really want and need time to write, and I find when I make that time for myself, good things happen. However, this house and its unrelenting messes try to thwart me at every turn! I let things slide for a day or two and spend hours making up for it. And don't think I don't have my kids in on the cleaning! They all have chores before and after school as well. Honestly, I think the messes are having baby messes when I'm not looking. Trust me, this is not an aspiring immaculate house keeper talking. I'm pretty okay with rolling with the punches a bit--that's what having kids is all about, right? I just start to worry when months go by and I realize that even with all the hours I've spent cleaning, I haven't lifted the couch cushions, or even changed sheets on the beds. Dusting virtually never happens, and I make the kids get food from the storage room because I can't stand going in there anymore. Basically the messes multiply faster than I can clean them up, and if I didn't mention it already (oh, I did?), I HATE cleaning! I'm afraid that if I can't figure something out (and at the moment, I can't) I'll wind up being one of those crazy hoarder people with six-month-old cabbage wrapped in underwear beneath my couch. I really want to hire someone to help, but there are no inexpensive options around here , and I feel like I should have a book deal or something before I can justify the expense to myself. Of course there can't be a book deal where there isn't a book, so the cycle just continues. If you have organizational tips--feel free to send them my way!!