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.