Cousin Katherine came creeping down the stairs late at night to ask for braids in her hair.  Who could resist that sweet please? I pretty much love these pictures.  

I came into the house the evening the cousins arrived.  “By the way,” Auntie Dot remarked, “you might want to wash your electric toothbrush.”  That’s a weird suggestion, I thought.  Then she explained that shortly before Cousin Katherine came scooting through at a gallop, exclaiming “It tickles!  It tickles!” Sure…

I was reading the news the other morning and randomly, completely randomly, discovered that an article about a girl in Wausau who nailed a perfect score on the ACT was really a story about one of my favorite and most brilliant piano students ever, a little girl I loved teaching…

We were thrilled that the cousins, their parents, and Grandma Kathy came to spend the weekend with us!  It was a weekend jam packed  because the missions conference was taking place at church, Arrowhead Chorale rehearsals were proceeding as usual, Dr. Peds had to work one night,  and YaYa had…

This morning YaYa joined us for breakfast.  It was a special treat because she leaves for school later than the others, and often gets up late and makes her own breakfast because she doesn’t enjoy dealing with her siblings and especially her mother in the morning.  She was calmly sitting…

The Banana and Dr. Peds made quinoa burgers last week.  I love that cooking quinoa burgers is something they enjoy doing together.  Last summer they researched and perfected a recipe for quinoa burgers to serve as an alternative protein source for our resident vegetarian when we cook hamburgers.  I’m not…

This week the weather is cold, wet and windy.  Last week the weather was warm and amazing.  In fact it was so ridiculously warm, it was almost hot.  We took out the outdoor furniture and hung up the hammock. The wind chimes are back on their hook, dangling in the…

The Kidlets and especially Dr. Peds were have been busy building cars that zipped down the track at the AWANA Grand Prix on Saturday. The Banana built a kayak.  I loved it so much.  It was super fast considering it was a kayak and was carrying a somewhat clunky paddler…

The Banana had asked me the same question approximately seven times in less than 20 minutes. Me:  You are driving me to wits end!!!!! The Banana:  Yay!  We’re going to Wits End! She always has been the kidlet who wanted to go places.

With the warm up in temperature this week, the maple syrup season has ended, perhaps a little earlier than usual.  In the end though, it was still a long run for collecting sap, which started running much earlier in the year than normal.  In fact, our neighbor half way down…