Rose Bush Removal

Before the rose bush can go in its new, sunnier location, Adam had to cut WAY back some nandina. Here's Peter, hauling it away.








Here's the rugosa rose bush. They're pretty tough. I hope it doesn't mind the move. It's got little buds coming out. It doesn't look like much (I only bought it in the fall), but I'm hoping it will grow into a fine, large bush. Very thorny.






Here it is in its new location. Notice husband. Notice husband's large hair. Husband likes large hair, because he considers himself to be of the large-hair generation. The beard is for his part in Fiddler on the Roof. The hair...well, the hair really needs to go :)

On the agenda

Today:
Philip is doing this
He just called because he forgot his fancy-shmancy calculator. This is a test run for the real thing later this spring.

Julia's temperature was 98.4 this morning. Yippee!

Anna is curled up on the couch watching this.

The sky is sunny with patchy white clouds. The trees are rocking with the wind. It's about time to go dig in the dirt!

I'll be back later.

Two days off

Or, two days of sickness, depending which way you look at it. Julia's been home from school with a fever. The flu bugs this year have been quite ferocious. Hopefully this is just a little under-the-weatherness for her. Adam got to stay home from work with her, which he thoroughly enjoyed. He did yard work and cooking, and today cleaned out the carport. He got 3 wheel-barrows of leaves out of the carport! Where were they all? Today, he had to be back at the school at 1:00, so I got to swap with him, and come home early.

Tomorrow will be cold and windy, but I'm hoping we can transplant a rose bush I bought last fall, to a better location.

Oh, and Julia. Well, she started out with a really, really sore neck from sleeping on it in an awkward position. But then she was rather lethargic, and started to run a temperature. The sore neck has slowly improved, but the low-grade fever has remained. I think it's been good for her to get 2 days of rest.

Two Weeks

That's how long it is until Spring Break. This time of year, for the teacher, is 'grunt time,' the segment when you get loads of work out of the kids, before the school year disintegrates into vacation weekends and rolls like a tumbling ball, downhill into the summer. I'm heading out of Ancient Literature into Medieval Literature. It's hard to pick between those two, they're both so good.
Julia enjoys reading a book on the couch.

Peter likes to carve pole-vaulting sticks, and propel himself around the
yard.








His great, swing rope was thrown into the big tree by the storm. He and Adam got it down.

My rosemary bush survived the winter outside, and is ready to grow (and be eaten) again!

The daffodils are lovely right now.

Warm & Rainy

Last night, since I was tired, Adam chose a short movie for us to watch. The Red Balloon is a French classic. As we watched (on a laptop, via Netflix of course), and Peter watched ("those boys are gonna burst his balloon!"), I couldn't help thinking how great it would be to use it as a tool to teach symbolism in World Literature. Sigh. Even sitting with my husband on the couch in the evening, I can't get my brain away from work.

Adam's had a hard day, a hard week, a hard month. The middle schoolers are crazy-acting, especially the boys, especially in the spring when the sap is rising in their young veins. Naughty boy behavior is one thing; lack of support from the administration in disciplinary attempts is another.

The drought we've had this past year makes me long for rain, and even though we've gotten plenty lately, I still find myself gazing, mesmerized, out the window at it, as it pelts down, sighing contentedly as it drums the roof. I sit here with Lacey-dog lounging on the floor, Julia and Peter reading books in the living room. Quiet and contentment.

My semester is really going well, and I can't complain. My classes are easy, the students well-behaved. The material is very familiar and requires little preparation. The grading is under control. I find myself wanting to gradually increase the difficulty level on them, testing to see if they've developed enough academically to handle a little bit more.

Today we welcomed into our extended family a new baby, Abraham. My brother and his wife have been very blessed. We're happy for them, thankful for him.

The Business of Being Born

Last night, the hubby and I watched a new documentary that was recommended to me, The Business of Being Born. It was very interesting, and informative. I would only recommend it to those of you who don't mind watching scenes from actual childbirths. Some of the shots are a bit squeamish. It is a rather frank assessment of the crisis of the birthing industry in the US, and how our nation is behind other developed countries, adopting practices that do not benefit the mother and baby, but instead the doctors and insurance companies. I found many of their arguments compelling. If you've had a baby in the past 60 years, it would be worth watching, IMO.

We watched it on our laptop, on Netflix, where it is a "watch it now" option, so you don't have to wait for a DVD to arrive in the mail. We watch a lot of fun movies that way. Netflix has recently become a LOT better deal for us -- and it was a good deal before!

Can she do it?

Daddy bought Julia a new bed! Can you believe our 8 year old didn't even have her own bed? She'd been sleeping on a borrowed one.

But before we can put her new bed in her room, Julia must CLEAN, a job she's been working on (poorly) for a couple of weeks. It's crunch time. Notice the teary face.

She did finally clean enough to get the old bed OUT, and the new bed IN.

She likes all the storage: 2 shelves at the head, and 3 drawers underneath. We will now try to avoid having 57 beanie babies on the bed.