Sunday Reflections – 16 April 2017

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Happy Sunday! Yes, we are all alive and healthy! It has been quite a month, and we are all enjoying the brief respite before we get into the last weeks of school.

Did anyone watch April the giraffe give birth yesterday morning? I somehow clicked on it at just the right time and was able to watch it all. It was definitely graphic but beautiful, and I was cheering as baby giraffe took its first wobbly steps.

Competition season is going well. We have our final regional competition next weekend. Holly’s dances have all placed in the top ten for overall dances in her age group. The rest of the team is racking up the hardware just as much. It is a small miracle because the team has been so sick for most of the competitions. They have had two weekends off in a row now (except for Holly who had an Irish competition last weekend), so it is everyone’s hope that they come back healthy and strong and even more ready to dance!

Connor had an amazing trip to Washington, D.C. two weeks ago. It was a work-study trip for AP Government, and it made me wish I was in that class. He met with and interviewed Wisconsin’s two senators, the Speaker of the House (our representative), and one other Wisconsin representative. In addition, he had to schedule and interview other government employees about a topic of his choosing. In addition, they got tours of the Capitol Building and sat in on several sessions. They toured the National Archives, the Holocaust Museum, had a night tour of all of the monuments, saw a show at Ford’s Theatre, and so much more. He came back and slept for almost the entire day, so I know the kids were busy. What an opportunity though!

Jim and I keep plugging away at life. Work has settled a bit for me, and I am struggling to adjust to the lack of immediate deadlines. Jim’s work problems are also easing, which makes evenings a bit less stressful. Holly is done with the school musical and moving into track season. Meanwhile, Connor has one more forensics meet, track season, and has AP exams in two weeks.

The good news is that we did book a family vacation for the first time in a very long time. One full week on the beach in July has me counting down. It’s been a long year, with the most hectic time yet to come, so that week to relax and unwind is desperately needed.

Today, we are enjoying the weather, which seems to have finally made up its mind to stay spring-like. Connor is putting together his graduation announcements; I want to get them out to family as we have no family who live nearby and will need time to plan if they want to come for his party. The hammock is out, cleaned, and drying in the sun. The windows are open. The house is clean, and we switched to the warm weather duvet cover on the bed yesterday. Jim is washing the cars. Tonight it is grilled burgers and fresh strawberries with ice cream for dinner. Spring weather doesn’t get much better than this.

Here are past posts from the last week in case you missed them the first time:

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 13 March 2017
The Wages of Sin are illuminating
Time to Never Let You Go
The Wanderers makes you think
Fabulous Friday – 17 March 2017
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 20 March 2017
Not Shrill but awesome
The Fire Child be crazy
Manners & Mutiny gives new meaning to the phrase sugar and spice
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 27 March 2017
Her name is Lola but she is not a showgirl
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley a.k.a. don’t mess with his daughter
The Women in the Castle – the must-read book for 2017
Fabulous Friday – 31 March 2017
March in Review
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading – 3 April 2017
Blood Rose Rebellion is a no for me
Perfect is pretty perfect
Is Behaving Badly the new cool?
Fabulous Friday – 7 April 2017
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading – 10 April 2017
Waking Gods – Hot damn!
It’s (always) Up to the Women
Fabulous Friday – 14 April 2017

I hope you all have a wonderful day and even better week to come. I’ll be offline again for the next two weekends, so I will see you back here in May!