Oak Leaves and Radish Sprouts

We're seeing more welcome signs of spring here in Maryland.

Tiny leaves are appearing on our oak tree . . .

. . . a few radish sprouts have popped up in my sheet mulch bed (radishes tend to sprout faster than other veggies) . . .

. . . and our hibernating clematis is starting to revive.  When we moved in last summer it was a beautiful, flowering bush, but a few months later it was a cobwebby mass of dead leaves.  I worried that I'd killed it by not watering it during the hot summer, but when I cut the branches off so I could remove the apparently dead plant, I found that the wood inside was dormant, not dead.  Then I worried that I really had killed it by chopping it so close to the ground.  Fortunately, clematis vines are apparently quite resilient.

The Rose Ball and the Temple

Last night, Phillip and I attended our stake's annual Rose Ball.

We enjoyed a lovely evening with live jazz music, ballroom dance instruction, and a remote-controlled balloon shark (which you can just barely see across the room on the far right).

Today some (saintly) friends watched our kids all day while we joined other local church members on a bus ride to the Philadelphia Temple.  It was wonderful to be worshiping and serving in a temple for the first time since the D.C. Temple closed in February, and I received some heavenly guidance about something that I've really been struggling with lately.  I'm so grateful to live in a region and an age where temples are just a few hours away, not a few thousand miles, or nonexistent as they were for so many centuries.  I have much more hope and direction in my life because of the strength and guidance I receive in the temple.

Friday Afternoon

How did you decide to spend your Friday afternoon?

Joy honed her art skills.

Anna read about fairies while wearing a jingly bracelet.

Daniel and Todd played a made-up game (which apparently involves climbing under piano benches).

Last but not least, our family listened to my parents opening their senior mission call . . . to Atlanta, Georgia!  The letter said they will be supporting members in the area.  I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I do know that Georgia is sooooo lucky!

Two Little Gardens

The Farmer's Almanac website and the weather forecast say the threat of frost has officially passed for our area, so the constant gardener in me is itching to get out and plant some things.

I put a couple tomatoes and some herbs in my planter, and I look forward to enjoying their bounty in our kitchen, but I wished there was room for me to plant a bigger variety of things.

Then I noticed a barren, shady, little dirt patch by our gate.  I decided to try sheet-mulching it--covering the ground with wet newspaper or cardboard to keep weeds from cropping up in my garden . . .

. . . then covering the newspaper with some good soil (and a stepping stone so I can easily reach the back of the plot without compacting the soil).  I planted a variety of shade-loving veggie seeds: peas, spinach, kale, chard, radishes, and a couple of lettuces.  I'm curious to see which things will flourish here.

While I worked on my little dirt patch, Todd happily played on his own nearby, repeatedly scaling miniature hills and hiking along the artificial creek bed.  Sometimes I think I need to find ways to entertain my kids all of the time, but I'm increasingly finding that they are good at entertaining themselves.  It's important to spend time together, but it's also important to let them learn how to enjoy playing on their own.

Signs of Spring

It's finally starting to look and feel like spring around here.

Some of the trees are covered in blooms . . .

. . . and our neighbor's lawn is a sea of violets (for some reason there are almost none in our yard, possibly because it's shadier).

The weather was so warm today that we dusted off our squirt guns and had some good, wet, family fun outside.

One good squirt deserves another!

Battle of the Books

Joy and I attended Howard County's annual Battle of the Books this evening.  Teams of five fifth graders read a dozen assigned books during the school year, then were asked 100 questions about them tonight. The proctor would read a quote or describe a feature from one of the books, then each team noted down the title and author of the book in question.

Here's Joy's team, the World Wide Readers, so named because four of the five girls have parents from other countries.  Joy lobbied to represent Denmark, since she has lots of ancestors from there, but since she knows zero Danish words and can't tell a frikadeller from an aebleskiver, she was stuck representing good old America.

Other teams dressed up as Jedi, royalty, Toy Story characters, and Willy Wonka with a quartet of Oompa Loompas.  I was really impressed with the work some teams put into their costumes.

The teams were given 30 seconds to answer a question, then teenage runners from the hosting high school collected all of the papers (to thunderous cheers from the audience).  Some of the runners gave the kids high fives as they sprinted back to their seats.

After halftime, local school officials (including Joy's vice principal in the pink shirt) took a couple turns as runners.  They were tired out after just two runs, which gave me greater respect for the teenage runner volunteers.

At first I had trouble telling when Joy's team got questions right, because they cheered after every single answer was announced.  I later learned that they were trying to win one of the "Best Team Spirit" awards.  Those ended up going to other teams . . .

. . . but Joy's team did win third place for "Best Costumes."  I guess the judges liked their globe hats. :)

Art and Cookie Appreciation

While Phillip took the boys to Daniel's choir practice tonight, I took the girls to the mall.  Female bonding over merchandise?

Nope--student art exhibition.  We received a notice that Joy was one of a small number of students from her school whose art would be on display tonight.  The notice didn't say which of her projects would be showcased, so we eagerly examined her school's exhibit to find out which of her creations had been deemed so exemplary.

Joy was decidedly underwhelmed to discover that her noteworthy project was a tassel.  Anna thought it was pretty nifty, though.

Joy was even more underwhelmed (if that's possible) by her mom's tiresome request for an expositive photo op while we waited in line at the reception for student artists.

She reserved her enthusiasm for the free cookies some volunteers were handing out.

One of my favorite pieces we saw tonight was this self-portrait by a friend from church.  He's holding a compass (the kind you use to figure out which way is north).  I asked him if the object had some deep, symbolic meaning about charting his course through life.  He replied that his teacher had asked him to bring a compass to class, so he brought the one he uses with his scout troop, not realizing that the teacher was referring to a compass for drawing circles.  He thought the mix-up was funny, so he included the "wrong" compass in his portrait.

A Park and the Star Fort

Yesterday the big kids went back to school, and the rest of us decided to take a low-key drive across the Chesapeake Bay.

We visited a park, and Todd made some new little friends.  We also saw a house that was blown a few feet off its foundation by a tornado last year.  I thought we left tornadoes behind in Arkansas, but apparently they get them every now and then in Maryland too.

Today we paid a visit to Fort McHenry.  I usually prefer to post my own photos on our blog, but I just had to find an aerial view online so you could see how cool the "Star Fort's" design is.  It was built on a peninsula, and designed so its cannons could fire in any direction on Baltimore's potential attackers.

Ironically, this cleverly-designed and heavily-armed fort has only seen combat once in over 200 years.  That attack was the famous 25-hour bombardment in the War of 1812 that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."  Amazingly, although the British ships fired over 1500 rounds at the fort, only 4 of the American defenders were killed.

While the fort has seen only one battle to two centuries, it has a very rich history.  It served as a training ground for troops in later wars, and during WWI over 100 hospital buildings were built around the fort for wounded soldiers returning from Europe.  Doctors performed innovative reconstructive surgeries there, and recovering soldiers learned job skills to help them get work after their release from the hospital.  When we moved to Maryland last summer, I had no idea we would have such a cool historical landmark just a few miles away.

Examining Bones at the Speed of Joy

Today was supposed to be drizzly, so we made plans to do something indoors.  The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History fit that bill nicely. 

As we drove into Washington D.C., I noticed dozens of trees bearing dainty pink or white blossoms.  It was our good fortune to visit the capitol during its annual Cherry Blossom Festival.  The flowering cherry trees were welcome spots of beauty in a region where most trees are still grey and bare.

Once we got inside the museum, this was my view for most of our visit.  Joy didn't want to plod along while others looked at things she wasn't interested in, so she asked if an adult chaperone would accompany her while she moved "at the speed of Joy."  I volunteered, and spent the next half-hour rushing to keep up as she strode through exhibit after exhibit, then declared the entire museum "boring."  I asked why she enjoyed the aquarium but not the natural history museum, and she explained that in the museum, none of the exhibits move.

Everyone else in the group agreed that one of our favorite parts of the museum was the Bones exhibit.  It was fascinating to see what so many animals look like on the inside.

For some reason, I had always assumed that a walrus's face was mostly blubber, not a big mass of bone.  On reflection, though, those big tusks would need to be anchored in something very sturdy.

We drove past the Capitol Building on the way home.  While I tend to have mixed feelings about Congress, I still find it thrilling to see this monument to the noble messiness of letting a complex nation of humans try to govern themselves.

Heroes and Snowballs at Gettysburg

Gettysburg was on my parents' East Coast Visit wish list, and since today was the only day of their trip that didn't have rain or General Conference in the forecast, we headed north to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania this morning.

It was . . . a little bit cold.

As we made our chilly way to the visitor center, Joy decided that a battlefield was a perfect place for a family snowball fight.

The snow had disappeared by the time we had finished in the visitor center and eaten cheesesteaks for lunch at a local diner (when in Pennsylvania, do as the Pennsylvanians do).  Papa took us to a few key spots on the battlefield, and recounted the heroic deeds of five Union soldiers that figured into the Northern victory.  He then invited us to vote which soldier had the biggest impact on the battle's outcome.  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain won, probably because Papa's dramatic account of Chamberlain's defense of Little Round Top made a big impression on the little Hendricksons.

As we were about to head home, the kids asked to stop and explore Pennsylvania's state monument, which is the biggest one on the battlefield.  I guess when you only have one major battlefield in your state, you can splurge on the Taj Majal of monuments.

I hadn't realized that one of the monument's big pillars contained a staircase that led to the top; leave it to my adventurous kids to discover things like that.  (Hey, Anna--don't climb on the parapet, please.  It's a long way down.)

On the drive home, Joy drew one of her Enderman comics illustrating what each of Papa's five Union soldiers contributed to their army's victory.  She repeatedly cursed the bumpy roads, but her drawing turned out well.

Back in Maryland we let Chick-fil-A cook dinner, then we had family home evening.  Todd was in charge of the activity at the end, and he happily agreed with my suggestion that we do a family Easter egg hunt (since the kids only found a few eggs at the ward egg hunt on Saturday).  Fun and jelly beans were had by all.

Holy Week 2018

You may recall that last year we tried a variation of this family's Holy Week tradition.  Each night of the week before Easter Sunday, we read scriptures, watched a short Bible video, and did an activity associated with the days leading up to Jesus Christ's atonement and resurrection for all of us.  Our whole family found it inspiring and fun, so we decided to do it again this year.

The first few nights were more lighthearted.  On Palm Sunday we acted out Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and each of the kids wanted a turn riding the "donkey."  Alas, we had no homegrown kale leaves to wave this year (maybe next year?), so we used plastic palm fronds instead.

The next night we reenacted Christ driving the money changers out of the temple.  Of course, all the kids wanted a turn playing the lead role in that scenario too, and each rendition got progressively rowdier.  Tuesday was a little more subdued as we discussed and then drew pictures of the lessons Jesus taught in what He knew would be His final week on Earth.

On Spy Wednesday (so named because Judas agreed to betray Jesus that day) we just read a few scripture verses, had a short discussion, then lightened the mood by dyeing Easter eggs (I'd like to say there's some deep spiritual symbolism behind that activity, but the fact is I just think it's a fun Easter tradition).

I totally forgot to take a picture of our semi-authentic Passover feast because my parents arrived in town that day!  We had a very uplifting discussion at dinner, though.  Friday and Saturday's activities got pushed back by grandparent activities and General Conference, but we made time for them on Sunday, and it made our Easter that much more meaningful.  I plan to keep our Holy Week Wall decorated for a few more weeks to remind us of the fun times we shared and the sacred things we remembered.