Spring! Finally!

Ah...April flowers are finally making an appearance!
What a nice walk Maggie and I had this afternoon. I took my camera to capture all the buds that are peeking out all over the place.

In Comes April!

As the days of this week

have gone by...
Monday we had a quiet day of school, started reading "The Killer Angels" for literature, and the guys all enjoyed being home after a very busy weekend.
On Tuesday I went down to the Anita C Leight Estuary Center to pick up the "Fur-Bearers" kit, containing the skulls, furs and various other parts of Maryland animals, so that the Biology class could use them to learn about how and why certain animals need certain attributes. I think it was one of the best labs that we have done so far.
We also got a model of a human skull from the library so that they could see how we compare to various types of critters. Interesting!
John had a robotics meet with his FRC team Thursday, Friday and today.
 They had a good time, learned a lot, and it was definitely worth it, although the team won't be going to World's this year.
Brendan got an "A" on his Algebra test! Go Brendan!
Paul had a Birthday on Thursday, which was great! He is such a great kid, and now he is a great 12 year old! We went over to visit our friends the Snows, and they surprised him with a cake, and then we brought Brett and McKenna over here to have Pizza and Apple Pie!




Friday was co-op day. Only four more and the year is over! Wow!
We have some neat plans for next year!
Today I took John down to the robotics meet, and Tim took Paul over to his Baseball practice.
We are still working on the den/guestroom, and it is coming along nicely.
I have to find a carpet or rug, but I think I am going to go to Ollie's discount place.

And then there's these awesome people:

A Week of Wonderful!

After a wonderful week in Texas with the Cookes, I made it home on Monday to jump into a new school week. I can't believe that only a week ago it was Sunday night in Texas and I was still packing!
I got home on Monday afternoon and we had dinner together again. The boys had worked very hard, under difficult circumstances, to keep up with school while I was gone, and they achieved admirably.
Monday evening I settled back into my routine. Tuesday we got back to school with a bit of snow falling outside, but this year that has really been par for the course. It's always snowing, or threatening to.
Wednesday was a full one. That's PE day for Paul, and we also have all the 12 Angry Men here for a rehearsal.
The guys in our group are doing the play, and it's going to be really good. I am loving hearing how it's coming along.
Right after rehearsal I took Brendan and Paul to piano, and Tim picked them up, which is a good system. That way I can get dinner.
Thursday was a fun day, well mostly.
We were able to take a lunch break and go ice skating, which was going so well,



until Brendan fell and hurt his shoulder pretty bad. I was tempted to take him in for an x-ray, but it seemed to improve over the next few hours, so we have been watching it. He may still end up at the doctor, but he seems to be doing OK. He says we need to go more often so that that doesn't happen.

On Friday we went to co-op and then Paul went off to Shakespeare. He is playing the part of Capulet in "Romeo and Juliet". I am looking forward to this!
At 4:30 we had to eat dinner, so that we could start fasting for the 24 hour famine that we were participating in with the parish youth and Confirmation kids. There were 12 kids that did the whole fast.
What a success!!
We attended a local parish mission and we were able to listen to the wonderful Matt Maher and have adoration!



Talk about a fantastic experience!

Here I thought we were just going to listen to a concert, but we were able to spend time with the King of Kings, in person!

The next day the kids made 17 pans of chili,

 they had over $1100.00 in pledges, they collected over 180 pounds of canned goods in a neighborhood food drive, in the pouring rain. Friday night they slept on the floor of the school. They hardly complained at all! What an amazing group!

Hey Texas!

I made an impromptu trip to Ft. Worth to help out while Laura was in the hospital to get her Colitis under control.
Here are some pictures of what we are doing.

Day Three - Angels Watching Over You

Really now....

From Cymera

Day 2

From Cymera