First Harvest

We have been neglecting our garden lately and haven't even weeded it. It is good thing it has rained a lot or we might not have even had a garden left.

So, I drag my big bottom and my children to my neglected garden this morning. We spent about an hour and half weeding it. That's about how long it took baby to say "that is enough of that!" (or maybe it was just my worn out stomache mucles protesting but I would rather blame it on the baby ;) )

And then we spent about 15 minutes harvesting sweet green peas. The kids were chanting "One for me, one for the bag". It is just a good thing our garden is organinc so they weren't eating pesticides :D.

Sonja wanted to eat everyone she picked. She has always been a big veggie eater.

So now as a reward because it must be a law, when you are done working in the garden you are suppose to play in the water.

It is only 72 degrees with a slight breeze and it is well water straight out of the ground but they don't care. After all, it is the first time to play in the water all year.

Being realistic about reality

An interesting article found here.

Here is an excerpt:
I think we have a problem in our culture not with "realistic weapons" but with being realistic about reality. After all, we already "fear guns," at least in the hands of NRA members. Otherwise, why would we ban them from so many areas of life? Virginia Tech, remember, was a "gun-free zone," formally and proudly designated as such by the college administration. Yet the killer kept his guns and ammo on the campus. It was a "gun-free zone" except for those belonging to the guy who wanted to kill everybody. Had the Second Amendment not been in effect repealed by VT, someone might have been able to do as two students did five years ago at the Appalachian Law School: When a would-be mass murderer showed up, they rushed for their vehicles, grabbed their guns and pinned him down until the cops arrived.

But you can't do that at Virginia Tech. Instead, the administration has created a "Gun-Free School Zone." Or, to be more accurate, they've created a sign that says "Gun-Free School Zone." And, like a loopy medieval sultan, they thought that simply declaring it to be so would make it so. The "gun-free zone" turned out to be a fraud -- not just because there were at least two guns on the campus last Monday, but in the more important sense that the college was promoting to its students a profoundly deluded view of the world.

Dying Easter Eggs

Fun times. It is one of those things that has absolutely nothing to do with why we celebrate resurrection Sunday but it is a useless tradition I will let my kids continue in simple as a fun family thing that we do and has no spiritual conotations whatsoever.

Go Fly a Kite

That is what we did today. The $1 kites from wal-mart are the best. With them you don't have that pesky problem of the kites actually staying in the air and creating a bordom factor. Nope, no bordem factor with these kites. It's All action, all the time or the kites will be sitting on the ground next you wondering what possible purpose you could have for looking at the sky when there is nothing there.

It's probably the best fun you could have for a buck! The kids had a ball. We actually had 4 kites going (can't say "at one time" as that would imply success in flying them which we were far from achieving, unless you can say that the kite staying in the air, waiting to decide to come crashing down at the moment we get to the end of the string success).

We did however have success in having fun and that was the goal.

More Spring pictures for practice

I have something I can work with as far as backdrops. I really need to invest in some lighting now.

Spring Pictures for practice

Strep

The bad news is DJ has strep throat. ugh. The good news is we had the opportunity to learn about scarlet fever and it's effect through history. In case you don't know, step used to be called scarlet fever. They are one and the same. It got it's name from the scarlet rash that often accompanies the strep infection. It is the illness that caused Helen Keller to go blind and deaf at the age of one and half. It is also the illness that caused Mary ingels to go blind (not just in the tv show but the actual Mary ingles who is the sister of Laura Ingels Wilder, that wrote the little house book series.)

I will be the first to admit the medical industry, as whole, is beyond annoying and is one of the worst things I have ever experienced in my life. However, I have to say I feel blessed by the thought that the same illness that took the sight of those two girls and the lives of countless others, to my little girl, was a mere annoyance taken care of quickly by ibuprofen and antibiotics. What a time we live in.