Rachel came home for her spring break two weeks before the rest of us had ours. It was great to have her back with us. She and I managed to find a moment to run to a local coffee shop for the best almond milk lattes and a few St. Patrick's Day treats.
We had our church youth group over for Sunday lunch in March. It coincided with St. Patrick's Day so we had a themed lunch as well as a St. Patrick quiz. The Banoffee Waffles were a hit!
I started a daily nature journal project on the first day of spring. This is in preparation for my Artist in Residency program next month. It's been wonderful to practice this skill each day and I love how much more aware I am when I know I've got to record something in my journal.
Some days I think there won't be anything new to notice (especially with my limited ability to saturate myself in nature). Something is discovered everyday despite my fears.
We had our spring break the last week of March and first week of April. Dear friends from Michigan came down to spend a few days with us. We made sure to visit Eagle Creek, Goodwill Outlet, the Art Museum, and this time we explored Ikea.
We have a brand new trail near our house that takes us right to the edge of Eagle Creek. We tried it out with our friends. If only time allowed this to be walked every day!
Our spring certainly came late, again, this year. I'm watching to see how fast things will catch up.
Spring break also held the funeral of a dear friend and mentor, Dr. Roy Blackwood. Of all the influences in my life, he and his wife have had the biggest influence outside of my immediate family. Part of my grieving involved baking a few pies for the funeral luncheon. It was the final thing I could do for him -- the final pies in a long history of many pies made for Roy over the years. I made his favorites -- the berry pies. Oddly enough, it was the same day that I spent eight hours proofing The History of Christmas. It was Dr. Blackwood that fostered my love of church history, taught me for four years, allowed me to be his "graduate assistant." I wished he could have seen the fruits of all his investment in me.
Spring break also contained a fun birthday party at which I was asked to lead the girls in painting unicorns. Oh it was fun to get back into teaching young children art! The girls did an amazing job -- all 13 or 14 of them!!!
And we did have one more snowfall on March 31! Just to show us how crazy our weather is!
Then April came around the corner and we started to see some true signs of spring.
I continue my work at the flower shop. I loved these two bouquet colors. I've got to figure out something for this Monday -- Easter colors.
We made it to the zoo with cousins! The tiger thought Arthur would be a nice lunch.
The animals were fun but I kept looking for the flowers in bloom since these were my first daffodils to get up close to this year.
And I learned to recognize Siberian Squill and started seeing it everywhere!
Our Art Museum has a Pop Up Tea House right now! How fun is that??!!! We went to celebrate the last day of spring break. David and Laura may be headed off to Christian school in the fall and my days of homeschooling will be over. It's all good, but also I need to savor these last six weeks of our homeschool.
I've been working on three large pieces of art for the flower shop. The last one is on the art table and it is a collection of peonies.
By the way, I hope to send out my next newsletter soon and I'll be including some form of peony giveaway in it for my subscribers. If you want to receive the newsletter, and get in on the giveaways that happen each time I write, fill out the little form on the left sidebar of this blog.
One last sweet cousin picture here. Olivia is nearly two! She's a joy to us all.
