Same! She had a hard time leaving but the next 7 weeks will go fast.

Love brings love.

I was inspired by the peach cake but still wanted lemon so I made this https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017151-lemon-almond-butter-cake?unlocked_article_code=1.g00.gnum.dwK108642j5h&smid=share-url Happy Easter!

It's going better. After my very blah week I have a lot more energy. I've been doing some fitbymyk videos while it pours rain nonstop. I found a combination of a 30 minute one for lower body plus a 20 minute standing dumbbell one that is leaving me just right. The weather is breaking today so hoping to get outside.

Amen.

Quoting myself to say: that didn't take long! https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-trad-wife?

Returning love after what you received = really beautiful. Inspiring!

The biggest costs for us were during high school. Kindergarten and the early grades were more or less free; I think I would have bought the same books had they been in school. Math books were the difference, I guess. We traveled a bit when the older two were young which would not have happened if they were in school so that was certainly more expensive. Youngest did some outsourced classes starting in middle school, and seeing how many people outsource now that is likely to be a cost to her unless she makes a decision not to. Three of mine did DE which was a large cost. The local LAC has a program for people in the county to pay $1,000 for a class. The closest community college and state university are an hour away, which would have been cheaper but logistically out of the question. One kid cost way more than the others for everything music-related: lessons, travel to lessons, instrument rental. As a teen dd put on fundraisers and received scholarships to attend music festivals which would have otherwise been thousands of dollars. However, I'm unsure whether that would have been a cost if she had been in school as I don't think she would have had time or focus to get to the level required (obviously plenty of school kids do achieve that level but that probably wouldn't have worked for this particular kid.) The investment in this level of music paid off with an all-expenses full ride through college/conservatory, but the costs during homeschool were serious. I think that not putting mine in school insulated us from certain peer-related expenses. None of them asked for things they might have seen and wanted at school, other than youngest wanting "skinny jeans" that she saw the other homeschooled girls wearing. They didn't drive until they were 17 or 18, none had phones before 16.

Up here they are seeking vernal pools, but my girls saw one last night jump into a fast-flowing little stream and zip along, then she crawled out and kept marching. Yellow-spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and fairy shrimp are the obligate species for a true vernal pool definition here, though I know other locations use different ones for theirs. We have all three in the wetland behind our house and I love to think of the frogs and salamanders trekking and hopping their way across the yard at night to the water. Blue-spotted salamanders are also part of the local vernal pool definition but I don't usually see those. Easter is the first sunny day in the forecast so that afternoon we expect to first hear the wood frogs, who sound just exactly like ducks quacking. Peepers will follow within about a week.

Not dumb at all! Last night we just walked onto the road from our driveway and assisted 40 yellow-spotted salamanders over the road. We also helped 6 wood frogs - they are just starting to thaw out and I bet we will see lots of them tonight. We also saw quite a few wood frogs squished by cars, sad. They all move after dark, hiding from predators, towards water. The majority of the salamanders we saw were closest to where a culvert goes under the road, heading for the giant wetland behind our house. We went out at 8 and by ten were seeing fewer of them but they will move all night.

Agree, plus the local real estate agents all have rental departments on their websites.

A dollar says he gets it 😊

It's happening! Amphibians here are thawed out (yes, the wood frogs freeze to overwinter, their blood contains an anti-freeze-like substance) and are making their move to vernal pools and ponds. It's a bit of a party here, with folks out monitoring, watching, and waving to cars to slow down. Tell me about your vernal pools! https://mainebignight.org/

Smart. I'm having a moment. I did two little workouts yesterday but have been feeling very blah since getting home. My bp is even higher than it was last week, ugh. I am someone who makes big changes to coincide with things like holidays, new season, the moon phases, etc. and since Easter is a salt-and-candy holiday for me, I'm going to link this change to Big Night, which is happening right now. Today. I will make fresh beet and carrot spring rolls for Easter along with my usual ham and yams. I'm so frustrated, but I can see my way out of this.

Nope, it's not soup, it's golden milk, see that little white arrow? This is the only cereal I like because I hate milk and love golden milk. https://naturespath.com/products/golden-turmeric-cold-cereal-np-us?

Maybe - if she doesn't ask him to take out the garbage, maybe she doesn't do this to him. Indigo, I'm sorry. My blood pressure rises when my 95 year old mom complains, and it isn't nearly as bad as your mom. I would be finding ways to check out which wouldn't be good for me. Glad you're venting here, much healthier.

A workout video yesterday and today, I've been very busy and not quite back in my exercise groove.

At home we have a masonry heater and a well, in town we have electricity and propane heat. So we choose between warm, dark, no water and no toilet flushing vs toilet flushing, water, and no heat. We usually stay home and hope to have run enough water into the tub to flush a few times before the power comes back on.

Two weeks later, I accomplished my goals at my mothers' and will go back once more before the summer season. I came home from my mother's to a wonderful surprise: dh had built a beautiful bookcase across one wall of our living room. It's lovely and simple and looks built-in. I picked up dd for her college break and we lost no time filling it. It took two days to bring all the books inside from the sauna where they have been waiting for several years, we culled the living daylights out of them, then split them into these shelves and some out in the back part of the house. We sorted them by genre then shelved them in descending height. It was so much easier than I expected it to be - if a book was the least bit sentimental to either of us we kept it, but even so I'll be getting rid of 27 dairy crates of books. Now the other kids will need to go through them, but it feels great. There is even room on the bookshelf for open space, new purchases, a big basket of baby books, and board games. This is a many-years-goal, and I am still surprised. The last piece of the small-house-rearranging-puzzle is two large instruments but I think I will find their home today. This week I will: make pysanky, welcome all four adult children home for Easter, and host our Easter party. I will also walk, lift weights, and stack wood. Today I will meet with my new committee and get our survey ready. I need to balance my head with some quantity outdoor time so will prioritize slow moving forest walks this week. I will also start the process of finding our summer staff person. I'm marveling at the amount of transition for our family. Oldest ds is getting divorced after 10 years of marriage and 15 years of commitment. Once way opened for him he moved forward with focus and kindness, even grace. I'm no longer sad for him, as he is so much more cheerful and upbeat about what comes next even without a real plan other than change. Dd turns in her second Master's thesis this morning. It's a complex and interesting piece of work representing extensive research. She has no idea what will be her next move and is waiting to hear from a couple programs. Second ds did not get the job he didn't really want but did get told of the upcoming job that he does want and so felt encouraged. And youngest is home for spring break and we're truly enjoying each other's company. All in all, March has offered us some real change and so far it's been positive.

Thank you for telling your story here, I am so sorry the enormity of the alone-ness hit all at once.

Never lost it here but the ice and underlying slush/water is flooding everywhere and treacherous to walk across. Dh had to use the sump pump to get the iced-over water off the driveway. So glad your neighbor had you and you thought to go out.

Amherst is this too, but it's in a much more beautiful spot and I think their commitment to equity is more than Colby's. I don't know how the lessons work for musical studies, but assume it's the same - not professors but students. That would seem awkward for a student at the level of your ds. Solid!

You know I'm plugging for Oberlin, the music is everywhere. Dc have a dear friend who did the musical studies major and played music throughout his time in the college, not con, and has had the most interesting jobs and travels related to his major. Apparently musical studies kids are considered the smart ones, less cutthroat than the con kids. On the other hand, I also have a soft spot for Amherst. Has he visited both? The campus cultures are so different. Amherst's setting is gorgeous, and the 5 college thing is cool but logistically challenging. The cornfields surrounding Oberlin were/are distressing for my nature-loving kids, but maybe it kept them on campus and noses to the grindstones 🙂 You already know this but one challenge for conservatory kids is the absolutely ridiculous amount of time they are expected to practice and the number of credits they require. Dd's curricular requirements as a con student were so far beyond what non-con students had to do. Yes, it's an incredible opportunity and she was/is grateful for that, but non-con offers at least a modicum of balance.

Congratulations! Welcome Baby Nabby. She is adorable!

Same for a few of my family members, ahem. Will that stop me from buying more bunnies and chocolate eggs? No. My annual Easter party will continue, though with fewer and fewer children each year. We do a big potluck with lots of friends. Our contribution is usually ham, sweet potatoes, and a lemon curd- topped lemon cake with strawberries, plus pretty paper napkins and lots of chocolate.