Saturday, May 29, 2010

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Old-Time Religion


Memorial Day Weekend marks the start of my favorite time of year. My garden becomes my religion and I become a "Garden Evangelist". I love to proselytize to friends and neighbors by sharing the wealth of my harvest.

Starting with early Spring when I dug up dozens of Strawberry plants to make room for this year's veggies. It gave me great joy to dole out my extra plants to fellow gardeners. When my garden greens started to fill in, I invited a vegetarian friend to pick a bucketful of lettuce (3 varieties), onions & chives.

This year has been the best year ever for Strawberries and we have harvested enough to enjoy in salads, smoothies, on cereal and au natural. For the first time, we also have been able to share our berries with friends.

I look forward to more Random Acts of Sharing as the rest of our crops come in...
Can I get a Hallelujah?

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for....

Another reason I give thanks for this time of year are our frequent bike-rides to DQ. The round trip to our local Dairy Queen is just over 4 miles. While this doesn't fully offset the calories consumed, I hope that we are creating some great childhood memories.

I also get to re-live mine!

Strike up the Band!


The Middle School Jazz band performing before the Awards Ceremony.
Alex is on piano and Devon on trumpet in the end of the back row, far right.

The last few weeks of school are a flurry of activity. My two middle schoolers have been busy with band concerts. Alex, my 6th grader middle-son, participated in the middle school talent show with his favorite Bach piano piece (Solfeggietto). And the highlight of this past week was the Awards Night ceremony for Honor Roll students. Both boys were not only recognized for their GPAs but also their achievements in Math.

My proudest moment was when my 6th grader who is in 7th grade Honors Math ( same class as his older brother) was recognized for having the highest score on a math test given to all students in the 7th grade. He had a 6th grade cheering section who was excited to claim him as their own. While his older brother may have been overshadowed for a moment, both boys were recognized as being part of a 6 person "Math Counts" Team that represented their school in an area contest. It would appear we have a Math Geek Dynasty in our family.

After the ceremony we treated the boys to Stone Cold Creamery for a wallet-emptying treat. The next day we took them out to lunch at a fancy restaurant. We may be a bit lighter in the wallet but the memories are priceless!

We were given two shiny new bumper-stickers boasting about our Honor Students. They have been put into storage. I prefer to do my bragging here and keep our cars humbly sticker-free!

The Higher You Climb

Yesterday I took Colin and Alex to their piano lesson. I was a bit concerned about their lack of practicing.

Which proved to be justified.

While my expectations were low, it was another story with their teacher. She had heard from some of her other students that go to school with Alex about his stellar performance in the talent show. It became quickly apparent that in preparing for his moment in the limelight, Alex neglected his lessons. Colin followed suit.

This has been the only sour note in an otherwise fantastic week. I now have to suck it up and pay better attention to their practice sessions.

Looking forward to a nice long and relaxing weekend filled with sunshine, good food and music!

1 comment:

terri said...

Clearly you've got a very green thumb! I grew up with huge vegetable garden in the back yard. The garden was to my parents as yours is to you. I didn't inherit the green thumb gene. I wish I enjoyed gardening, but I don't. Thankfully, my hubby manages to grow a decent garden, so I can enjoy the fruits (or vegetables) of his labor.

Congrats to your very talented and intelligent boys on all of their recent accomplishments. You have so many reasons to be proud!