Joys of Spring

Ah, the joys of Spring.

The joy of white dogwoods.

The joy of pink dogwoods.

The Joy putting on a face mask for her appointment to retrieve whatever she left in her locker before school suddenly closed a couple months ago.

The Joy trying on the cheap, mail-order glasses we got to replace the expensive, rimless ones that have broken twice in the last month.  After being without glasses for a week or so, Joy tried her new ones on and commented how nice it was to see leaves on the trees again.  I remember the same experience when I got my first glasses about three decades ago.

When They're Not at Virtual School

These days, when the kids aren't working on virtual learning assignments . . .

. . . they're playing with bouncy balls on the trampoline . . .

. . . chatting with Pink Grandma . . .

. . . watching Phineas and Ferb at screen time . . .

. . . and reading.

Lots and lots of reading.

Not That Kind of Roast Beef

Riddle me this, Batman.

Why is this lean ground beef suddenly cheaper per pound . . .

. . . than this fattier ground beef, which is labeled as a chuck roast???

I asked one of the store butchers, and they said that due to the current national meat shortage, they're having to grind up chuck roasts to make this grade of ground beef.  We live in interesting times.

Dodge-Tag and Carnations

This weekend . . .

. . . we played "Dodge-Tag" in the church gym . . .

. . . and went for a ride-scoot around the neighborhood.

A sweet friend from church brought me flowers . . .

. . . and our neighbors took their swing set for a walk (don't ask me why--I have no clue).

Last but not least, the kids caught some serious air . . .

. . . when Daddy bounced them on the trampoline.  Woo hoo!

It Rhymes with Fan

We've been playing a lot of Settlers of Catan lately.

Sometimes Daddy joins in.

Sometimes Daniel likes to play standing up.

And sometimes he likes to just play against himself.  He also likes to pronounce the name "kuh-TAWN," because Daddy's coworker says that's how the game's German inventor pronounces it.  Everyone else I've ever played this game with calls it "kuh-TAN" (which rhymes with "fan"), so I'm just gonna stick with that.

Anna doesn't care what we call it, as long as she can keep building her own little country with the extra pieces.

Artistic Teamwork and an Ironic Board Game

Daniel and Anna collaborated on an art project again this week.

They were assigned to create art in the style of Piet Mondrian.

I'd say their collaboration turned out pretty well.

And speaking of working together for a good cause, our family decided to take irony to a whole new level by playing Pandemic last night.  We saved the world at the very last possible moment . . .

. . . but we did save it!  Way to find the cure, Todd!

The Indoor and Outdoor Garden

I bought some more plants today . . .

. . . and Anna helped me plant them in our vegetable garden.

Things look pretty sparse in the garden right now, but those little plants will be a lot bigger in just a few weeks.

With the outdoor garden all set, I moved on to the indoor garden.  We have lots of rabbits in our neighborhood, and I don't want them to eat my greens and tender herbs, so I decided to plant them in a bag of soil in our sunny kitchen (you can see a basic tutorial for this method here).

All done!  This is the first time I've tried growing most of these veggies and herbs indoors; we'll see how they do!

By the way, I didn't know pink chard also has pink roots!  Anna and I thought that was pretty cool.

I also don't know why gardening makes my hair so messy, but it does.

That's better!