Life on the Home Front: Week 8 and 9

The last two weeks have been full: the weather is feeling warmer, leaves are on the trees, school is nearing its end. 

David had a Zoom recital for cello! So painless for the parents -- no place to drive and show up on time and it only took 15 minutes to get through all the students! We are thankful for our cello teacher and David's weekly lessons!

Leaves on trees make a huge difference. The world feels completely different. I love trees. They make me so very happy.

We've even managed to start eating outside when the weather is warm and dry enough!

A glimpse into a weekend moment: Laura relaxing on the couch with some strawberry-rhubarb pie.

I am getting the gardening work done a little at a time. Already the garden is farther along than when I took this photo. I'm excited for June when the flowers are at some of their best!

Our local Red-shouldered Hawk nest -- I love taking a walk and checking on things. If the hawk is not in the nest, he is sitting on a nearby tree keeping watch!

Flowers are a huge part of my life right now. The week of Mother's Day I worked four full days at the flower shop. The demand was so great, even with three people working, we had to turn people away.

Working with flowers makes me so happy and towards the end of the week I start getting excited for Monday to be back with them.

The Mother's Day flowers were so very, very beautiful!

We have a number of dedicated tea drinkers in our house and poor Michael now has to share his pot with the diligent students who share his study.

One of the most refreshing things I did in the past two weeks was to take time to watch The Sound of Music with Laura while I sewed. I did this the day after the week in the flower shop and singing along with all the music filled my heart with joy. Laura loved it too!

Another thing that brought me so much joy and happiness these last two weeks was re-reading Susan Branch's two "fictional" books about her becoming an artist. LOVED them all over again and for those days I was imagining myself holed up in her cottage on Martha's Vineyard.

I'm moving forward on art ideas -- and art workshop ideas! Those on my newsletter list will be the first to know my ideas for the fall (sign up in the side-bar if you aren't already).

With church being online we had time and energy for Mother's Day breakfast this year. A special treat.

Somehow it is Saturday again and I am working on planning out my week, chores, gardening, and moving furniture around to better suit our family's needs. Laura is getting her own room in the loft for the summer. It's so cute I want it too!

And how cute is this mole? Every year we have a high school junior in the house we get an adorable mole project for that person to do (I don't remember which class assigns this). James' turn this year and we have a Samurai mole.

And now it's time to go find some lunch and transition to other chores. Have a good weekend!