Drawing in the Sun

For a few moments, I tried to direct our activities. It didn't work, so I read on a blanket in the front yard, soaking up what warmth I could from the bright sunlight (chilled by a constant breeze). The boys played with the dog two doors down, the boy in the house behind us, called hellos to the bio-medical engineers living next door (but sadly leaving us soon), and lamented that the blond girls who live three houses down were all required to take an afternoon nap. Then after a bit, they visited me again, bored of digging dirt in the garden, tired from riding bicycles, and in need of water, which I had in a bottle on my blanket.

Bastian brought the sidewalk chalk down from the porch and tried to draw a boy, but got very upset at his lopsided limbs and crossed the body out. Bastian does not normally draw. I walked him through this and, as it turns out, he can in fact draw. I think he simply chooses not to since it is Aleks' great talent. I think he feels that he needs to be perfect. I am hoping that in time I will be able to convince him otherwise.

Aleks visited me too, asked me many questions - none of which I can now remember. When I tired of his questions - due to being wrapped in the climax of my book - I suggested that he grab a sketchbook and a pencil (both of which I had already available on my magic yard blanket) and try to draw from life.

First we attempted a dried fruit of the neighbors Sweetgum tree, which litters all the driveways and much of the gutter starting in late fall. He drew a variation, then I attempted one. Due to the fact that neither of ours looked much like a Sweetgum fruit at all, I decided that the Sweetgum fruit was far too complex. Plus I wanted to get back to the book (the fifth and last in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, if you must know). Thus I suggested Aleks attempt a drawing of the house. Which he then did. Bastian was quite fascinated by it and yelled encouragingly that Aleks draw the interior of the house afterward, which he declined. They then ran off for more play with neighbors and dogs and dirt.

Monster Under the Bridge

Just when we feel like our only friend is the city we live in, it goes and puts freaking monsters under the bridge.
Aleks can't figure out how a person can make something so big.
Gotta love art students.
The boys examine and discuss graffiti.
Then we head to a meeting at the co-op and purchase many vegetables.

Warm Afternoons

The boys spend the days hangin' while mom sits indoors getting work done (then she picks up trash from the yard and soaks up some rays). Mama got elected board president of The Cleveland Food Co-op and now needs to be serious about those emails and assorted contacts and whatnot.Aleks rides his bike and thinks about bugs. The yard will look like this at around 6 o'clock all summer long.
The darling buds are shaking from out their wintry enclosures...

Easter Sunday

We celebrate Easter as default because my parents were all raised Catholic. We mostly just think of it as a spring celebration. And we like chocolate. So it's totally secular, as we are totally secular in general. Just puttin' that out there, I suppose.

My parents stuff the baskets and hide the eggs and we come visit for the weekend because, well, because it's nice and we get to spend time with family. The kids dig it.
Grandma Cat and Mary Beth after dinner.
The amazing Nasty Lee!
Spring.

Great Uncle Joe pushin' Bastian on the swing.

Aleks re-started the fire from the night before on the hot coals.

Spring Festivities at the Grandparents'

Saturday, the weather was weird. It was all sunny and beautiful, but awfully windy, then it'd sprinkle, then be sunny again. Finally, it rained decently and the wind calmed down. I wandered around the property in the afternoon, taking photos.
The boys picked these flowers for me at the Good Friday Sing Along party we went to Friday night.
We didn't dye our eggs, but they were already colorful.
Bastian spent the afternoon helping Grandpa Jim install new gutters with these fancy brackets.
They got six baby chicks for spring as well. Just for the boys.


Aleks got attacked viciously by the rooster and spent his day healing on the couch. He had been wearing his new summer pjs which are shorts and short sleeves and the mean rooster, who we swore wasn't a rooster initially, had a clear shot. He was wearing 8 band-aids by the end of it and we had to put neosporin with pain reliever on all his cuts to help him feel better. He even limped when he walked. Poor little dude.
Later in the evening, we built a fire for roasting marshmallows since the weather was so lovely.
Aleks limped out to help.
The sun went down. We ate brats and Italian sausage for dinner then roasted marshmallows.




Afterward, the boys needed a bath. Jon and I went out alone to see a band in town.

Seeding......Late

We got everything started a bit late, being that it was April Fool's Day already. I suppose we were the fools for that, but better late than never. Better this than trying to find a way to justify buying whole plants. They are far too expensive, frankly and we are far too impoverished to bother. Plus, I always like the feeling of making something I could buy.

Thus, the seeding. I was vaguely prepared this year, actually. Usually it's Jon who plants the seedlings and I tell him how he's doing it wrong. I managed to get out pots and buy a full spectrum light bulb to make these suckers grow. I even wrote down what we're planting so I can know where it should go and what it is later on.

Our plan is to build a sunflower house and focus the whole of the garden around it, concentrically or some such. I didn't buy any morning glory seeds, but they can go directly in the ground in May, so I may try that. Hopefully it, you know, works. Aunt Lilly, out on Spring Break, helped us clean out the garden of dead plants, cover the compost nicely with lots of brown matter, and pick trash up from all over the yard. The weather has been so nice that one should almost find things to do outside just to make up reasons to be away from other to-do lists and emails and things that suck one in indoors. Ahhh...Spring...

Spring Nature Table

For some ludicrous reason, every time we've done a seasonal table, it's been for winter. I meant to get the spring table done for the equinox last week, but with this, that, and the other, we didn't get around to it. We did it today while our friend Jack was here. Aleks made the sun and he and I picked out the items to go in it. I think it's very festive. Very springy.
I particularly like the rabbit, which is actually the evil man-eating rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We gave him a carrot though.