April (snow) showers?

Welcome to our corner of the world, where Spring is (as Dan tells me) on a Thursday in May . . .

Seriously, this has been the month of schizophrenic weather. We started the week with balmy, lovely weather. Bubby dug up the rosebush and raspberry bushes in the front of the house when she watched the kids on Tuesday, and Dan and I transplanted the raspberry bushes to the backyard after dinner. The only person sorry to see the mess disappear was a neighbor kid, who was very sorry to see Bubby digging up the raspberry bushes, since he liked to snack on them on his way home from school. (I knew and didn't mind--it's the random college and high school students who would circle around the bushes--on my lawn!--eating all our raspberries that inspired the move. That, and the fact that they always block part of the sidewalk). We're still waiting to see if they survived the move--and the snow.

Yes, snow. By Wednesday, the weather was decidedly chillier, and yesterday it snowed all day. (So much for our plan to remove all the branches from the back-yard before the city's yard-waste pick-up tomorrow).

At least the snow meant we got to hang out more with our kids. And that Dan got to feel miserable with his head cold. Poor Dan. Maybe it was something he contracted on Thursday while he was down at Dixie judging the Sterling Scholars program.

In other news for the week: Andrew's been keeping a list of books he's read. In the past month or so, he's read over 100 books. So I rewarded him with, of course, another book. (Just what he needs, right? But I'd rather pay for a book than toys.)

I also finally figured out how to crochet. My friend showed us how at YW a few weeks back and I wanted to get it down. So I found an easy online pattern, watched the attached You Tube demonstration a few times and crocheted while the kids played the Wii. (Or, as it gets called in our house, the W-I-I--clearly a futile move since Andrew has no problem deciphering our spelling.) I wanted to make a baby hat (I'm thinking about making one for a friend whose shower is coming up), but the yarn Andrew helped me pick out was so darn thick that by the time I'd "finished" the instructions for the hat it was clear that it would have to be an enormous baby. I added a few more rows--and now the hat fits Andrew. At least it wasn't totally futile. And I had a lot of fun.

(I think I might have just found a new obsession. The great thing about crocheting is that I can do it and watch TV at the same time. Sort of.)

Last night, Dan and I tried to watch the new Julian Fellowes' series on the Titanic (or, as a friend called it, "Drownton Abbey"). We made it through the first episode and I couldn't watch further. Part of the story involves a young mother who stays on the ship with her toddler daughter to find her baby (not knowing that the nanny already has the baby safely on one of the life boats). Death on film doesn't always bother me--but the death of children is always traumatic for me. Especially when it happens to be a true story. (Plus, there's the not-so-incidental fact that Titanic stories always make me think of Connie Willis' Passage, possibly one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. Right Jeni?)

Our lesson today in Sunday School dealt partly with the importance of keeping personal records. I may not do a great job with my personal record (I've written in my journal like twice in the past year), but at least my family life is reasonably documented. At least, I felt virtuous during the lesson, but looking back at this particular post, I can only think that it's a sort of sorry excuse for documentation! But it's better than nothing. Right?