...out like a Lion
Here are some of our spring adventures of late. The kids are busy with activities and Scott and I are busy with our stuff too. And we're still waiting for some spring weather, although we have had some nice days here and there. Here's hoping for more of that.
First: Some Spring Miscellany (or late winter)
Matthew wearing a shirt he got for his birthday. Matthew has been working hard on the school play for nearly four months. This past weekend was his closing night! Way to go Matthew!
Happy Birthday Scott! We had a low key birthday celebration for Scott and then he promptly left town for reserve duty. I am in this pic as a reflection in the glass door.
While Scott was gone, I struggled along without him as per usual. Here we are on Pi Day (March 14). I recently learned that Pi Day can also be July 22, representing 22/7 - a sometimes used approximation for Pi. Matthew made a key lime pie, which was very tasty! Pi is great and all, but I think we should also be celebrating Euler's number on e day (February 7). Of course, there's no pie on e day. Sad.
Math seems to loom large in my life these days - I just completed a third statistics class for my grad program (more on that below) - but I always enjoy helping the kids with their math homework. I have a lot of sympathy for being totally lost at math because it's all very abstract and that can be so tricky. And when I learn new tough math concepts myself it can be a little bit brain breaking at first. So I feel the pain of learning those new math things. John is learning multiplication and division this year. He's doing pretty good. They do a lot of word problems so we are always sorting through the words for clues about what to do. We do math together in my office sometimes.
As it gets lighter I try to go outside on walks in the evening with the younger kids. We don't always have time or wherewithal but it's fun when we do go.
On some days the younger kids like to use our exercise equipment.
And once in a while it has been sunny and non-rainy!!
Anna had her awards banquet for soccer (her season ended recently) and was voted most improved by her team! Way to go, Anna!!
Here is Anna performing in her middle school choir. She is currently registering for her high school classes for next year and will probably do choir again.
Emma is busy with girl scouts - she and John played on the playground as I picked her up one day. We are wrapping up cookie season!! I have guilt about being a bad girl scout mom. Most of the other mom's hang around for the meetings, but I have dinner to make and other activities to drive to for other kids. The leader moms are pretty nice about it, so I think I'm not in trouble yet.
One day at girl scouts the girls got to gently hold some pet rats. I learned from all the reality veterinarian shows that I binge (yes, I already know I'm weird) that rats make great pets. They are smart, clean and friendly. But I have no intention to get a pet rat. They are cute though.
Emma's girl scout troop had a daddy daughter dance. The leaders took great pains to arrange it for a time when Scott was going to be in town since they knew he has military travel sometimes - even though I am a bad girl scout mom. It was very kind.
Emma is losing teeth faster than they are growing back.
She has a few more wigglers too.
Scott hung these bulletin boards for me so I can have some place to put the kids art work. We are going to cycle these works of art out as new ones come in, but I like having a place to see them for a while.
On a clear-ish weekend day Scott and I got ambitious and bought three fruit trees for our small yard. We will have to keep them trimmed small. Here is a peach tree. We ended up moving it a little farther away from the fence. It's so tiny now - will take many years to grow big. We also got a pear and plum tree in the ground. And I have a giant pot left by the previous owner and am thinking of trying to grow a smaller tree in the pot. Not sure.
The kids have been helping us pull weeds. Some children are more willing than others. Emma is very afraid of all bugs (we're working on it) and after being mostly indoors all winter she usually goes through some spring anxiety about bees or other bugs.
Hydrangeas, Trying to decide if I will put them in the ground or keep them in a pot for now.
Mom's Birthday
My birthday often falls during spring break as it did this year. I took the older two boys on a hike with me at Lacamas Creek. No Camas lilies yet. I asked all the kids if they wanted to go, and in the interest of full disclosure I told them it was going to be wet, muddy, cold, long and they might get rained on. Anna laughed and said I didn't sell it very well. John and Emma opted out, but the older two boys were up for some cold adventuring. We didn't get rained on much, although there was a little hail. It was fun.
More birthday hiking
We had a nice birthday celebration with angel food cake.
During spring break I took all the kids to doctor appointments. Gah!!
A not very fun activity, but needs to get done.
Grant's Birthday!!
Grant's birthday was also during spring break. We went to Olive Garden.
Enjoyed birthday cake there
And went to Big Al's after to play arcade games
Matthew and Anna camped out at air hockey and had fun.
Later we had Kirby themed cake and presents and few activities
Pinata
New playground ball!
Building with some of his birthday gifts
More building!!
Trip to the coast
During spring break we went to Tillamook for the day.
We met up with some cousins at the cheese factory. and enjoyed cheese and ice cream.
It was cold and rainy but we walked on the beach a little bit between downpours.
It was beautiful.
I had wanted to go out there and even though it was quick and rainy and cold my expectations were met. Sometimes I just like to go see the beach.
This was a question on our page-a-day Jeopardy calendar recently.
When Scott and I first got together we had a discussion about this. I told him, respectfully, that when other people (non-Oregonians/NWesterners) go to the place where the land meets the sea they say they are going to the "beach." (Except maybe New Jersey people who go to the "shore.") He thought that was weird and said one should/would say they are going to the "coast." So now Jeopardy shows us that this is a North West thing. Going to the "coast," that is. Maybe they want you to lower your expectations of what such a visit consists. You may be cold, you may get rained on, chances of a stiff wind are pretty good. Multiple jackets, hoodies, beanies, blankets may be involved. It's not a given that you will be lounging in warm sunshine on the sandy beach/coast/shore, no matter what time of year it is. Scott and I like this commercial about Northwest beaches.
Snow week
And the Monday after spring break we had a snow day!! We got maybe 4 inches of snow. It was surprising. I had put all the snow gear away for the season so had to go dig it out. It doesn't snow that much here, so it was exciting. Here are some snow fun pictures.
The kids had fun burying each other in snow
And sledding, although there were some heated arguments about which sled everyone could use.
Walking back up hill is the worst!
I had just bought tomato plants when the surprise snow came. I hadn't put them in the ground yet, so I brought them inside. They are still living as I write this, several weeks later. I guess I jumped the gun on tomatoes this year but hopefully they will still be ok.
Later in the week we had hail, icy rain, slushy snow, rain and more snow. And we had soccer practice out in it, so that was less than fun for the kids.
More hail. Hoping for spring weather soon!!!
Running
Here's me running outside one morning. I like the Scandinavian saying that there is no bad weather, just bad clothes. Meaning if you have the right gear, there's no reason not to go out in whatever weather. But when its cold, rainy, windy, muddy and dreary, going out to run just doesn't seem that fun. Maybe I'll get tougher about it in the future. It felt like a tough winter for me exercise-wise. Again hoping for spring soon!!
Statistics
So I'm chugging along slowly in my graduate studies. I completed my 3rd statistics class (hypothesis testing in inferential statistics). It's basically about deciding if some sample data is "statistically significant" or not, if you know what that means. It sounds simple and straightforward, but mathematically and conceptually things get complicated in a hurry. So I got a high-ish B on my final and a high A in the class, which I was very happy about. Hooray!! This picture is from one of my quizzes mid-class. I got several 100% scores on the quizzes throughout the class which kept surprising me. I really understood the material better (than the previous class), but my imposter syndrome often keeps me from celebrating my own successes. Scott tries to remind me that I'm actually doing well, its not just a fluke.
This was my stack of flash cards to review for my final.
I felt it was a lot and each card I made had tons of info on it.
It always feels like a heavy lift but by the end I felt ready!
This is Matthew's stack of flashcards for his Japanese 1 class.
He has me beat.
And finally, I have finished reading (listening to the audiobook of and some reading along with) War and Peace. It was a wonderful book, I really got into the story and the characters. And it was fun listening to it vs. just reading because of the Russian name pronunciations and all the French language that is in there. I started it in January, before Russia invaded Ukraine. It gave me a lot to think about. Now Putin is the Napoleon in this story. Kind of. Anyway, it was so good, but I don't know if I could even recommend it to people...because its 1300 pages long!! I want to read something really short now.
