Catch up

Grace turning her lunch into an airplane with wheels:

I haven't been terribly good about posting lately mostly because I haven't felt terribly eloquent or profound (not that I ever really am, but sometimes it bothers me more than others).

Life has kind of taken over also, so I find that I am less apt to make good post-worthy observations about life around me. Here's what is coming up in the next week and a half:

• finishing up our school year
• physical therapy for Abby (a knee issue due to sprouting up within the last several months)
• physical therapy for me (see last post)
• Abby starting to attend YOUTH GROUP!
• working at the coffee shop a couple of times
• Emma's ballet recital this Saturday (she has four dances with three costume changes) and again on Sunday

Taken at dress rehearsal from stage left right before they went on


• my first experience as a backstage mom. I have stage left, wing duty which means I must make sure the right girls go onstage at the right time in the right order from stage left (my first question at dress rehearsal was, "Which is stage left?")
• Abby's tour of the middle school in preparation for starting 7th grade at Hesston Middle School in the fall - Go Swathers! (that would be a piece of farm machinery)
• a sewing lesson with Jenny
• Abby babysitting for some neighbors
• a few graduation open houses to attend
• Emma's 5th grade middle school orientation; yes, middle school starts with 5th grade here - but they have their own hallway
• A parent meeting for new middle school students starting in the fall
• Emma's violin program at McPherson College
• one last ballet class for Emma before recital this weekend
• Emma's violin lesson
• A trip to Wichita to pick up I.T.B.S. results for Abby and Emma during a 3-hour time slot
• Mother's Day
• an orthodontics appointment for Abby

After the above week and a half, WE GO TO TEXAS FOR VACATION!!!!!!!

While in Texas, Greg and I will spend one night, just the two of us in Austin to celebrate our 15th anniversary! I am so excited. The nice thing is that after vacation, summer break will bring an open schedule.

One thing, in the midst of the end of the school year chaos, that I have been able to observe and has been a great source of joy and blessing to me is a robin family nesting in our pergola. I am thankful that God hasn't allowed me to miss this one; He brought it right to us outside our window. We all get up on the dining room chairs to watch the mama robin and her mate take turns bringing worms to this eager nest full of humongously wide little yellow baby beaks. We've seen the whole process from the mama building her nest, to the endless sitting on her eggs, to the endless flying back and forth finding worms. Emma got out our Handbook of Nature Study to read about robins and found that each of these little teeny guys will consume up to sixty-something worms a day. We watch this mama sit there in the pouring rain covering her babies with her fluffed up self. I love it. I am thankful for this invasion into my busy-ness that lifts my eyes again to my Creator and His amazing creation.