But singing works just fine for me

Is there anything better than a rainy day forecast that is wrong? Especially in Spring?!This is that beautiful, overgown, tree that always heralds Spring at our old house...there are even a few tulips blooming, and I saw the first hostas poking their shoots out from under the leaves this morning. Something about digging in dirt just rights all sorts of things!

It's been a creative time around here - both boys are making up songs constantly, some of which are better than others ;-) This is Harry's roll-up keyboard that he bought with some birthday money - he's picking out tunes and putting his good ear to use.

Jack has also been building lots of lego creations with Dean. This was his first complelty solo attempt at one with more than 4 pages of instructions, and he was so proud to finishi it all by himself!

Our house is a series of projects in process - every surface is covered with a half-read book, portions of lego sets, stacks of drawings, etc. It feels good....well, except for my stack of half-sewn mending and half-changed-over winter/summer clothes...all in good time - there are some plants that need attention on this bright sunny day.

A great big Thank You goes out to all the people who work hard to make others' lives easier, better, healthier and safer.

James Taylor's Sweet Baby James

I see tree of green....er, pink

It's amazing what a little weeding, a lot of snow, and a few months can do for a yard
Back in October, I had no idea what this tree was, but realized it needed a good pruning

This week, it turned into one of my favorite trees - we have this tree in a lighter color at our old house, and it was blooming when we lost our babies. It is a bittersweet reminder that life goes on - it's always one of the first trees in our old yard, and now Spring is a richer color at our new home.

Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful World

Nip It In The Bud

It was a blindingly glorious day, and the only good thing about not selling our old house yet is that I get to watch my favorite tree bloom one more time. There are about three buds ready - hopefully it will be in full blossom in time for the Open House.

B52's

it's sharing in the giving

Decisions, decisions....the boys and I went thru their playroom today to find some good things to give away this Christmas. This is about 1/3 of the goodies they have decided they have outgrown and know other children might like to play with this year

And just so you don't start to feel all sorry for them...this is what's left in their *closet*, not including the entire room of toys - yikes!

After the giving, we decided it was time to light the tree...um, I live with three silly boys :-)

Right after we took this picture, all of the white lites died. Good times. Dean salvaged most of them, so now we just have to re-string them. Thankfully, we've been slackers and hadn't planned to do the ornaments until tomorrow anyway.

I'm on the hunt for bubble lite replacements, hoping to save this VERY OLD strand that was a gift from my dear Aunt El! It seems like everyone is out of everything.

Alabama's Christmas Is Love

Underneath the Christmas tree

We picked the boys up from school for a little tree shopping adventure. Harry's class has been studying different traditions and he's completely convinced he wants to be Jewish (notice the menorah on his reindeer hat)...he begs almost daily for us to be Jewish - the lights, the gold coins and the eight days are pretty appealing at this point. He's not sure he's ready to give up the Christmas tree....time will tell!
Goin' on a tree hunt!

Decisions, decisions.....

The family tree - baby, it's cold outside today!

They're practicing their suprervisory skillsThe art of tipping

Harry had learned his lesson well

Jack is SO excited!

All I Want For Christmas Is You

Teenage Wasteland

Signs of things to come?

These are two of the first conversations I heard this morning:

Dean: You need a new shirt.
Harry: NO, I'm fine in this one.
Dean: Buddy, you're working on day three in the same shirt. You stink.
Harry: NO, I'm fine in this one.

(he changed, and I just want to assure and CPS workers out there that they usually change more frequently {blush})

Jack: Mommy, I slept GREAT! (He says this most mornings now). I like it when I sleep 14 hours! Now I have to stretch. (Maybe he'll turn into a cat before a teen?!?)

And just to remind myself that they are still itty bitty:

These are the only two pix I took today (gasp!) Maybe I needed a visual reminder....sniff