From My Students

I admit, teaching piano is not always fun for me. It takes way too much time away from my kids. While other families are out swimming every day during the summer, I'm stuck at home three days a week teaching 16 kids how to play piano, and most of them hate every minute of it. What I do love, though, is when they find a song that thy love and can't get enough of and they practice until they have it memorized. I love it when they "catch the fever" and practice so regularly that they sail through 3 levels in one year. I also have to admit, the money is not only necessary, but great. And yes--I love it when I get gifts. This week I had a brother and sister return from a month in Japan where they were visiting family, as the do every year, and they brought me the neatest gift!! Inside this cute little bag, wrapped in beautiful pink rice paper was a box of Japanese sugar candies made from wasanbon, a fine grained Japanese sugar.

I don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to eat them. They are too pretty. My kids are dying to try them, though, so maybe I won't have a choice.

Rachel Turns Eight!

Rachel turned 8 years-old last week! Her baptism will be at the end of July and she couldn't be more excited.

She got a cute new Webkins seahorse and a giant Hershey bar. Yes, she asked for that. She is my kid, after all.

On the top of her wish list was a Madame Alexander doll. She was so excited to get this! She also got some camping accessories for it and now she and Melissa can make S'mores with their dolls.

Her cake had to be brown because she wanted chocolate frosting. Sounds good to me! It tasted good, too. Happy Birthday, my Rach!!

Strawberries

We planted a 25' row of strawberries two years ago and got a lot last year. This year that amount easily doubled. I love berry season! Here they all are as flowers.

This was what Sara and I picked one afternoon.

We turned them into jam...

...and pie, and syrup for our waffles, and tonight I will be blending them into smoothies. All this right out of my own backyard! I really love berry season.

Spaghetti Night

To say that Emily loves spaghetti would be an understatement. She opens her mouth as wide as she possibly can in anticipation of the next bite. Too cute.

And her curls are pretty awesome, too.

When All Else Fails, Play in the Rain

It has been raining non-stop here for what seems like months. We had a beautiful, sunny morning, but the girls waited just a little too long before going outside to take advantage of the brief respite and had to settle for playing in the rain. Our basement flooded for the first time since this house was built, 14 years ago. We didn't get a lot of water, but enough to cause some stress. Luckily, I got a nice new steam cleaner for Mother's Day that came in handy, and some friends loaned us a dehumidifier. After 2 rounds of pulling up water with the carpet cleaner, and emptying a full tank in the dehumidifier twice, I think everything has dried out and little or no damage was done. I've had my fill of all the fun Pennsylvania has to offer and quite frankly don't see myself ever missing it. Maybe I'll miss the blueberries...

Why We Use Antihistamines

The pollen has dropped with a vengeance in PA. This is what my car looked like this afternoon. No wonder I'm sneezing like crazy!!

Funny Birds

I went to feed my chickens yesterday and found them like this. Not only are they all snuggled up together (in 80 degree temps?), but they managed, with the exception of one rogue silver-laced, to sort themselves by breed. One of my buffs is missing from the picture. She was more interested in food than friendship at the time. Chickens are funny!!