The Last Round Up

It's been over a month since my last post.  I should be able to come up with at least 10 things for this post to finish out the 365.  And Hmmmmm.  What then?  I'm wondering.  I have no idea.  This 365 was supposed to take a year.  It's been a year and a half with some nice big month-long breaks in the middle.  So.  Should I keep up with the 365 idea?  Which worked so well as a daily thing last time. . .not. Or should I just keep going and see how long the next 365 things take?  Change the title to things that make me smile and use dates for numbers?  Or something else all together?  Let me know what you think.

356.  Spring.  This is not in order - but Hallelujah!  A nice warm spring wind blew in this last week and blew the crocuses in the yard up out of the ground.

They have such happy little faces.


I so needed the weather this week, even if I didn't get to get out in it much.  Long winters are really hard.  But lately I have a sort of theory. That maybe we are like bulbs.  There is  energy that gets stored up and lots of growing and struggling that takes place underground, where no one sees it.  It seems dark and there isn't much evidence of growth, but under there somewhere we are still alive and trying to make this whole life thing work.  And then, suddenly, when you just about can't hold on any more, when you wonder if another freeze or set back might just kill you, there is a beautiful burst of growth and energy that makes it into view.  And suddenly, we can see what was being worked on all that time in the subzero pit.  Perhaps it's like giving emotional birth, or, obviously, like bulbs finding their way into the sun.  For so long there doesn't seem to be anything there, but we keep trying, until - our eyes are opened wide in wonder- because a whole lot happens at once.

Maybe no one else has this experience.  I feel it every spring.  Ahhhh.  Sun.  Now if it would stay like this until fall. . . or next spring?


357.  Sue had a birthday!  We took her and a few friends to IHOP for breakfast in their pajamas. I love this picture because it shows how excited she was!  People are so nice!  No less than three people offered me their 20% off your total order coupons.  We made cute gift bags with our own homemade pancake mix and a few goodies to take home.  We love pancakes.

358.  Holes in our ears.  After that we kept the big day going by getting Sue's ears pierced!  The oldest still hasn't decided about the whole jewelery thing.  Sue wanted this done ON her birthday!  A little nervous.  And the lady's gun got stuck on the first ear.  But we did go on to do both ears.  Here we are half-way through. Earring on one, little black dot on the other.

Later on the ears got infected a bit, but you have to love neosporin!  We dipped the posts in it and the ears cleared up pretty quickly.  So now we are past time to be able to take out her first pair.  I've been putting her off because the new skin under there looks so baby brand new and thin.  I'd hate for cheap metal to send us back a step.  But she has her box of homemade earrings ready to go (from a short-lived let's sell jewelery experiment a few years ago.).  They are mostly too danggly.  We are supposed to stick with small earrings for about the first six months so the holes don't stretch out.  Which means earring shopping. And Sue can't WAIT!

359.  Lou was Amelia Earhart.  She was chosen to represent her school for a big assembly.  And she sang in the district choir.  It was 15 minutes of district-wide fame.  She did a great job giving her one minute speech. She has enough charisma to light up the stage. 

360.  We are almost Chinese if you please. Sue and Lou got to sing at a big Chinese New Year extravaganza.  Kids from our school Chinese club sang while a tape of students from our sister school in China singing played behind them.  It was so sweet.

(side note- skippable - We've actually gone to this new year's celebration four or five times with our neighbor before.  Each year it gets bigger.  But this year I'll admit to being a bit sad that it was mc'd in English.  The first year we went there was NO English.  We just watched the acts, but had no idea what was being said.  Last year for the first time it was announced in both languages.  And this year the announcing was all English.  I guess they are trying to attract a wider audience, but I kind of miss the days where we were trying to figure out what was going on.  I thought it must be like a piece of home for those who only spoke Chinese.  I know if I was in another country I'd love to have a celebration I could go to where I understood everything they said.)

361.  Multipiano. The oldest played at a multipiano contest.  Her design even won the cover of the program!  I'll see if I can get a video to post here of one of her pieces.  So far no luck, but I'll try again.



362.  Heart day.  Heart shaped pizza was our nod to heart day this year.

 

And Sue had a great Valentine's box!  We also blatently stole from other bloggers and heart-attacked the house.  Everyone wrote something they loved about each other on hearts and we covered the kitchen and part of the dining room in them.  So sweeet to look up from the computer or making dinner and read why one of your kids loves you.  Ahh.

363. A new table.  Mr. C finished the table!!!!

 

It was put on hold for a few years.  But it's in the living room now.  It's very beautiful.  Mr. C was so proud. He finished it just in time to have a few friends over for a family home evening birthday dinner. 

It's big enough that even if we don't have enough floor space, the S-Train will be able to spread out his creativity quite nicely.

364.  An annual labor of love.  I made German Chocolate cake for Mr. C's birthday.  I used to get burned.  That frosting splatters while it cooks, you know!  Until one of my smart children suggested a long handle and an oven mitt.  Now it's easy peasy.  And the photo I took makes me smile.

365.  Getting to 365!!  I can't believe I made it the whole way.  And here I am.  Wow.

And what now?  I still have more events to post.  (Some of the daily fun gets lost when you wait a month to post and it all boils down to events instead of funny moments.)  But what format?  Thoughts?