i last blogged a week and a half ago, but so much life has happened that it seems like several weeks ago. the kids and i took last week off of school. i just had to have a break. i was falling apart. we went down to see Daddy one day, went to an organic vegetable farm another. we met the cousins at the park one of the days, and we went out to Burnet for a birthday party for my grandmother another day. on saturday we went up to Georgetown to run this month's Vern's No Frills 5K. i didn't do so well - 25 something, i think, but the kids were amazing. Samuel ran it in 22 minutes, and Margaret in 24! this coming saturday they have a city-wide kids' mile event that they run annually. Samuel almost always medals. i think he might win his division this year.
i've been trying to get out and do my long runs on sunday afternoon. long right now means 6 miles. some days are good and some not so good.
we've been back at it with school this week, and like my running, some days are good, others not so good. i'm trying to view each child as a person and not a task, and also to focus on learning and not just accomplishing.
a new farmer's market opened in our neighborhood yesterday. it's located in the YMCA parking lot, the same Y that we spend the majority of our life at, so this is a good thing! we went to the grand opening and i can see this becoming part a regular part of our weekly routine.
Hazel is growing by leaps and bounds. i need to take her in for her four month well check. since we aren't vaccinating, i haven't felt the urgency to get her in, but i would like to see how much she's grown and we don't have a scale of any sort in our house. people keep telling me that she's going to grow up really fast because she has so many older sibling to watch all the time. i think it must be true. she's so alert and loves to be in the middle of the action. she's almost sitting up and grabs at whatever she can get her hands on. she scoots all around in her walker. yesterday William taught her to stick out her tongue. it is hilarious to see her imitate the kids in this. we just love having this little munchkin in the family!
we've been spending a lot of time gardening these days. we've been blessed with so much rain the past couple of months. those parches days of summer are but a distant memory.

we got a moby wrap the other day. we like it!

i have lots more pictures to share, but will have to get to those another time.

An optimist is the human personification of spring.

Susan J. Bissonette