Sunday morning

Sunday morning, Diet Pepsi, and sunshine. Does it get much better than this? Friday evening was the kids' homeschool play performance. They did a wonderful job! The singing was excellent; the costumes and set were just beautiful; and the comedy was hysterical. L and C are natural performers, so this is a great outlet for them.

In the middle of May, they have piano auditions for the Piano Guild. L is pretty much ready. C still needs some practice. I don't know if they are having a spring piano recital, but I suspect that they will since their teacher is retiring. L is going to piano day camp this summer and I hope we can find a teacher there for the kids. It will be a longer drive for lessons, but I think L really needs higher level teaching. A University student or teacher will be good for both kids.

The first part of June is the dance recital. This is a big deal for all of us. C is in one dance this year, but he is in all three shows. L is in three dances (not to mention the daddy-daughter dances) in all three shows. She will be pretty well wiped out afterwards, but she loves to perform and she learns so much from these shows. There are four families from our church with kids in the shows this year. I don't know how much that will help with driving for dress rehearsals, though. All the kids still want/need parental involvement in getting their costumes, hair, and makeup right.

P and I (OK, mostly P) spent yesterday cleaning the garage. Now, the garage would have room for a car in it except that we have all the boxes for the garage sale sitting in the middle of it!! In any case, a lot of stuff has been thrown out, and the rest sorted and put away. We have to do the basement and finish the kids' rooms this week. I hope we can get most of it done. If we don't, I don't mind taking the stuff to Goodwill. The rummage sale is nice to give us a deadline, though.

Last night, we went to the neighbors house to watch a movie and have dinner. They are an older couple, but are very active and fun. We watched a video of a show in Branson. It was really quite good. I'm not a huge country music fan, but they sang lots of old country stuff that I know and kind of like. They also did a number of Southern Gospel songs. I don't really like to listen to Southern Gospel music much (I prefer CCM), but they sang some hymns and older songs which was nostalgic. I grew up listening to Gospel (pre-Amy Grant!). We didn't get home till late, but we went right to bed. It was nice that we just had to walk across the street to get home!

C turns 9 on Tuesday - EEK! Where did my baby go? He's all excited because he gets to open a couple of his birthday presents that day. I also told him that I'll make chocolate chip muffins for breakfast since we won't have cake until Saturday. He also has dance class Tuesday - I'm pretty sure he'll be just walking on air all day.

C's birthday party is Saturday afternoon. The rummage sale is Saturday morning. Yikes! I've asked a friend to come over that day to help in case I get overwhelmed. We invited some friends of ours who are moving (back) to the US from Venezuela. The husband is from this area and was a missionary in Venezuela. His wife is Venezuelan and worked at the Ranch where he worked. They are hoping to come to the birthday party and to be at church Sunday am. I planned C's party so that I don't have to feed the kids lunch or dinner, just cake and ice cream. I told our friends that they can stay for dinner, though. If the weather is nice, I'm hoping that we can grill.

Book Review: The Great and Terrible Quest
This book for preteens is about a young man in medieval England who gets involved on a quest with an injured knight who has lost most of his memory. It isn't a long book, and I finished it in 2 days. It is a page-turner! It makes a point that honor and "knightly-ness" are based on behavior, not position. Enjoy!

Movie Review: "The Life of Birds"
The Life of Birds is a three DVD set narrated by David Attenborough. There are a total of 10 episodes. I chose for us to watch this because we are studying birds in Science. It took us about 3 weeks to finish the set. The footage is just spectacular and the information is unmatched. The only problem is the evolutionary point of view. He did not bother to argue for evolution - he simply assumed it as fact. My kids are learning to be discerning about things like evolution and creation, so I used these DVDs as another opportunity to discuss design versus naturalistic explanations for biology. Overall, though, I would highly recommend them.