Last Wednesday we didn’t have a lot going on, which was good, as I was still recovering from Icky Tummy. Greg had a short playdate with his friend Kya. We were late, then they needed to leave early, but they had fun in the backyard! Lots of climbing on the jungle gym the way it wasn’t intended to be played on, of course. Then I caught up on housework, Greg caught up on My Little Pony watching, and the big kids had school.
Thursday all the kids were in school, so it was another day of errands for me, this time for the Spring Recital. I got the programs made and ordered, practiced my various instruments, and picked things up from hither and yon. The scout pack meeting was at the Waste Management Plant south of town. It was very, very stinky, but also quite interesting. Made me want to re-read Slow River. David “officially” crossed over to Scouts and received his Scout book from our pack leader. (I didn’t know that was going to happen or I’d have invited people and probably would have insisted it not happen someplace quite so informal.)
Friday turned unexpectedly busy. More Spring Recital errands, more just-for-us errands. Greg got a new toy with his own money at the dollar store. We had my “birthday lunch” with Nick at Oliveto’s (I had a birthday coupon!). Then I went up and had a conference with Ben’s teacher because (prepare yourself for the shock. No, really, prepare yourself!) Ben had been challenging the teacher and substitute teachers authority. My Ben. For real. It turned out to be no big deal, but apparently he’d had a hard week, there’d been a mix-up with the sub paperwork, and it just spiraled from there. *sigh* After that was an impromptu PTA meeting (announced in the funniest way: “Let’s go to my house and drink beer in the front yard while the kids run in the street!” whee! note: the kids did not actually run in the street, nor was it an official meeting). After that I took the kids to the PretzelMaker in the mall, to use our birthday coupons there, whereupon we were treated unkindly by the establishment, they denied looking at our official documents proving our dates of birth (which I’d brought just in case because it can be awkward when two in a family have close birthdays), but they gave us our free pretzels eventually.
Saturday was busy as well. Ben had a birthday party for his friend L. to go to first thing in the morning. It was in the backyard and I got to spend my morning chatting with my friend R, who I don’t see enough of, which was lovely. The cake was a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake (homemade). So very yummy!
Saturday was also my solo debut doing special music on the piano. I’ve done quite a few duets with Nick’s mom, but never played on my own. I was so nervous and shaking so hard I could barely play. Everybody later said that it was beautiful and soothing music (I played Savior Like a Shepherd Lead us from the Simple Hymns book. I’d originally planned to play a more complicated version, but with the RA flare, I decided to go simple). Hehehe. After church I managed to spill an entire cup of hot tea down my front, burning myself across my belly, thigh, toes, and hand. It was really quite painful that first day and continued to be painful in spots for several days after.
Sunday was the big day of the Spring Recital. The kids and I practiced, practiced, practiced, then loaded up all the munchies for the reception and drove out to church, whereupon we started set up and rehearsal. We had some great people come out to help with sound & kitchen stuff, for which we are very grateful. The recital went very smoothly. My parents and Nick’s sister and dad came. Nick did a great job as MC, the kids did excellent at their various instruments (Ben played three pieces on piano, David played one piece, three ways: piano, violin, & recorder), and my clarinet solo (the adagio section of Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No.2) went off without a hitch (playing the clarinet in front of people is a breeze; why is it so difficult to play the piano in front of others?). There were tons of other refreshments there (we were worried there wouldn’t be), so we got to take home lots of goodies, too. My parents cooked dinner for us afterward.
Monday we hung out with my parents again in the morning for breakfast, then had a working PTA lunch here at our house to try to make t-shirts (the iron-on stuff just didn’t work). After that we went & picked up my parents and took them with us over to David’s TARGET Bullseye forum. David played the recorder there, too. I can’t seem to get the video off the iPhone, but will update this post once I’ve figured that out. 😉 (Monday was also art lessons and scouts, but no photos of that nonsense.)
Yesterday was another busy day (they all are lately, it seems). Got the kids off to school, then headed over to Rose Stadium for the area 5th grade track meet. Someone was really thoughtful this year and brought a tent for the parents to sit under (in the bleachers, which I thought was a bit weird, but all the schools were doing it) so I didn’t quite die from heat. Got some quality time talking with my friend Lea, which is always good. David ran the 800 meter race and came in 7th, which was an improvement over last year. I don’t know why he keeps getting signed up for that one; he’s much better at sprinting. He had a lot of fun, though! I took advantage of a 10 minute lull in my schedule and showered before heading on to other things. Other things being: kid pick-up, Lego club, buying a present for David’s friends birthday, taking the kids to piano lessons, then yet another PTA meeting (last one before the spring carnival!), then the aforementioned kids birthday party. The birthday party was interesting because it was at a pizza buffet and we’d gotten a call earlier in the day that they were going to discount our meals by about half, but we didn’t know why. Well, come to find out they were filling spots for commercials. So we had to do all this cheering and present giving over and over and they interviewed some parents and generally were in the way with their big camera and lighting set up. It was chaos!
Today looks to be a quieter day. Greg and I are going over to Molly & Clive’s for breakfast/coffee, then we’re going to register him for kindergarten this afternoon. 🙂 He’s sooooo excited! 🙂
Lisa Holcomb 