Ahhhh...Spring

We're soooo glad to see warm weather again.  Flowers blooming, leaves appearing, birds chirping,  you know the drill.  I love spring.  It's not my favorite season, but it's a clear second.  Ri and I went to one of the bigger Farmer's Markets around here today to pick up some herbs to plant this year.  I'll use seed for all the "normal" ones like parsley, basil, chives, mint, and a few others.  But, today we picked out some unusual ones and a couple that don't propagate from seed.  We got lemon verbena (YAY! I love growing this stuff!), pineapple sage (it's been a few years since I've been able to find this again),  a large rosemary (I'm impatient), summer savory, salad burnet, french thyme, wooly thyme, and apple mint (never heard of this before, but it smelled so good).  I can't wait to get started on the planting.

Easter Sunday!
Superman will be joining us for church tomorrow, and then we'll go to my father's for dinner after service.  He is very artistic and paints eggs for the girls each year.  In fact, because of him, I haven't had to dye easter eggs in forever.  I'm not all that artistic (read, not at all), so this suits me just fine.  Last year he made some where he took out a small section of the shell, poured the egg out, cleaned the empty shell (the best you can, I guess) and then once they were dry he filled them with confetti, glued a bit of paper over the hole and proceeded to paint them.  At first glance they looked no different than the others, but oh my did the kids have fun with them once he let them in on the secret.  He just had to clue them in as to which ones had confetti, and which were regular eggs.  :)

The children have done really well recently.  I've had to spend a good deal of time with my mother, mostly helping her sort through things, so the girls have been own their own for a good deal more time than usual.  Not that I thought they couldn't handle it, but with working through their own grief, I felt there may be a few difficult encounters.  Not saying there hasn't been, but it's not been bad, and they've held the house together quite well.  I'm very proud of them all.  My step-father's colleagues at the university have been invaluable with all their help in planning the memorial.  They even set up a fund in his name that will give financial aid to one student each year.  The memorial is set for a couple of weeks from now, so there's still a bit of planning and whatnot to finish up.  This, along with all the regular stuff (which the girls handle admirably well), trying to get back on track with our school and with tutoring my cousin, and all the spring stuff that needs to be done (yard work, the small garden plot, cleaning, etc.), I will still be strapped for time for the next few weeks, but I'm am at least trying to keep up with the reading of some of my favorite blogs, and I may be able to slip in a few posts from time to time.  I hope to have Ri get some photos of us doing some planting (and later this month - strawberry picking :D).

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

Becky