Home improvements

Stace has been perfecting his cheese-and-onion soda bread. He made a pair of loaves last weekend, and another pair Thursday night when JT, Jim and Callie came up for dinner. Yum!

 After a month of searching, we've replaced our living room furniture. Here is our new sectional/chaise, which fits our back wall perfectly and provides seating for five or six. It was really inexpensive, but with two little ones and two cats, we're not in the "pricey couch" time of life.

We had enough money leftover from our tax refund to get all the pretty pillows...

...and this comfy leather reading chair, which reclines and rocks.
Stace and I are so pleased with our living room now! For the first time since we moved in, it really feels like "ours," with furniture we've lovingly chosen.







In recent weeks, Stace also has improved our home's exterior. He installed motion-sensor lighting on either side of the garage door, and in the porch.









He also replaced the ugly weedy gravel next to the driveway with prettier rocks, over a weed-blocking fabric sheet.










I had hoped we could put in bark, to match the bark elsewhere in the front yard, but then it rained in the middle of the project. Whoa! Talk about a swiftly formed pond! We learned why rocks were the choice however many years ago.

Sweet Violet

Our beautiful almost-2-year-old 

 

Violet Mae seems more and more like a "two" every day. 

Not in a "terrible" way, but she seems so much older, more mature, more capable, more talkative.

 

Violet has quite a sweet tooth! Here, she enjoys a cupcake for my friend Christine's baby shower Friday. Christine owns Stroller Strides, and her firstborn Ezra is a day younger than Vi. She'll be having her second son soon.

"Can I help?" is a frequent Violetism. She hears Cora ask the question and get jobs to do, and she wants to help, too. Yesterday, for instance, both girls washed down the table legs, chairs and windowsills.

Here, Cora had completed her silverware chore and I hadn't yet put the caddy back into the dishwasher. Violet climbed onto the chair and "helped" by filling it back up. 

Violet likes to climb.  

This is from our Mom2Mom playdate today at Burger King. Violet kept pushing the high chair around to use it as a stool, since climbing into it was no trouble at all.

 Even this shows the effect of Violet's climbing. Stace was working in the garage, so we put the playpen in with him. Violet later climbed out and strapped herself into her stroller. She likes climbing, and she likes straps.

Here she is at Juliana's, when she climbed into Natalia's stroller. 

 

 Our cuddler - Violet still enjoys snuggling! "Hold you, hold you," she'll say. We'd love to, Violet, love to hold you and keep you our little snuggler forever!

The past week

What have we been up to lately? Normal life...

Here the girls are playing together with the princess Duplo/Lego set. Cora and Violet often play together, and though that means plenty of yelling, they play happily quite often, too.






Cora also likes to be in charge of Violet while they play, and help her with eveything. It's great, like when Cora read to Violet at bedtime.

 On Tuesday, Genia and I registered Johnny and Cora for kindergarten. It can take a while and it's easier to not have little ones with you while you wait, so we switched off with the kids. I had them all at the park until it was time for Violet to nap, and then they all played at our house until Genia came back. Then, it was my turn to go register Cora, and the kids all headed to Genia's.
Last week, we went to Juliana's to play, and Cora loved playing on Maya's new birthday rollerblades.


On Saturday, we had Elizabeth and Jerry and the rest of the family over to celebrate the March birthdays - Melanie and Dad. We had quite a feast - corned beef and cabbage, carrots and potatoes, roast chicken, spinach salad, and cheese-and-onion soda bread. Yum!

 And on Friday, we went to BJ's to celebrate Mel's 24th. The girls were so well-behaved, even though we were out past bedtime. Stace and I were so proud! Melanie liked her picture gift from Cora.

Happy Birthday again, Dad and Melly! And, happy Mother's Day to the mums in England, Nan, Big Nan, and Auntie Jenny! Wish we could have been there, too!

A new lens

Sunday, March 18, marked 30 years after the little mishap that claimed the sight in my right eye. I had been spinning, and I fell into a sharp corner that pierced my eye. 

A few weeks ago, Beverly, the ocularist I've been seeing these three decades, finished my latest prosthesis. Here, for those of you who are interested, I'll share the story of how a prosthetic lens is fashioned.

 

First, a plastic mold is placed on my eyeball, and Beverly squirts a gel into it.

 

The gel firms up on my eye, capturing every groove and ridge. The eyeball is not a smooth surface, especially mine, after the trauma of the accident, and later the car crash that caused an air bag deploy into my face. 

From the mold, this impression is made - see its strange shape with a big bulge on the right side?

 A clear plastic shell is made from the impression. Beverly fits it onto my eye, so we can see how it feels and adjust the shape, smoothing the areas that rub or ache. The black markings show her where my pupil and iris should be painted.

 From the plastic shell, Beverly creates the white lens. A bit of paint, a bit of thread to make the veins (below), a few more trials and fittings, and voila! A new prosthesis that fits almost like a glove, sticking to my eyeball closely enough to track the movement of my left eye. (Thankfully, my accident took the sight nerves but not the motor nerves - my bad eye moves just like my "good" eye.)

Here is the before shot, my prosthesis made a few years ago. 

My eye's surface changes slowly over the months/years, so that the prosthesis will only fit well for so long before it needs to be replaced. Yes, I have quite a few lenses that no longer fit. Odd thing to collect, indeed.

 And here is the after shot. This one really fits well and looks very natural. 

Beverly is an amazing artist and a great friend. She's known me longer than probably 95% of the people in my life! I've let her know that she's not to even consider retiring.

Cora's first recital

Cora's Keyboard I class gave a recital for family and friends on Tuesday afternoon. Our Cora (and the other children) played three songs, with the final song making the keyboardist use both hands.

 

Because she was youngest, Cora played first. We thought she did very well! So grownup, too. 

Here's the class, following their performances.

Here's Cora with her teacher, Mrs. Secor. Cora was pleased with how she did, and we were proud too. She practiced a lot! So did her daddy! I've included below video clips of her three songs.

I'll finish with one Violetism (Thanks to Genia for keeping Violet at her house during the recital!).
Violet has heard all of Cora's songs a lot over the past few weeks, and can sing them all. The lyrics to "At the Zoo" are as follows: Lions are there, tigers are too, I like to go to the zoo."

The other night I sang the song to her, leaving a blank at the end for "zoo" for her to fill in. She replied, "Toilet!"

Renovate

I was blessed to go on my first church women's retreat this weekend. I, along with 130 other ladies from Real Life Church, headed into the San Bernardino Mountains to the Forest Home Christian Conference Center for the 5th annual Renovate retreat.

 Here I am with my new friend Ana, who was my seat partner on the 3-hour bus ride up into the mountains. (Friday traffic, gotta love it! We were so glad to be on the bus and not behind the wheel.)

One of the best parts of the weekend was getting to know and love new friends from church. Since our church is so big, you have to be intentional about forming friendships, and that can be hard to do. Now, I have a lot of ladies I can talk to by name when I see them on the weekends.

 I didn't go into the chapel, but it sure was pretty to look at! Our topic for the weekend was contentment, and we focused on Paul's letter to the Philippians. Having the focused time to pray and hear from God was life-changing. I hope to go back next year.

The setting was beautiful, as was the weather. We could look out at snow, but it wasn't very cold during the day. I was surrounded by lots of woodpeckers, blue jays and other birds, chipmunks, and even deer. The accommodations were more than comfortable, the food was yummy, and it was just a well-organized, fantastic weekend.

I'm so thankful for my amazing husband, holding down the fort and being supportive of me, in so many ways. Thanks, my dear Stace! 

My funny girls

Coraisms:
"I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I want be an ice-skater, I want to be a pirate, and I want to be an engineer. That's three things and I don't know if I can do three things."

"I know how to spell 'Bible.' B-I-N-G-O!"

Cora the Negotiator, at bedtime: "Dad, this is the deal. If you don't stop playing the piano, Mummy will have to read to me, OK?"

Violetism: I drove Genia home from Pioneer Clubs, while John took Stace and Cora. When Genia got in, Violet said cheerfully, :"Hello, Agggumm!"
Of course, Genia knows Violet very well, and knows that in Violet-speak, that means cat, or other small animal. She said playfully, "Don't call me Aggum!"
Violet laughed and repeated herself.

The next morning, I asked Violet, "What did you call Miss Genia last night?"
She laughed and yelled, "Aggum!"
So she knew what she was doing, remembered doing it, and was trying to be funny.

Violet and Cora also like to tell "knock knock" jokes.
Here's a frequent offering from Vi: Knock knock, who's there!
(We then repeat, "Who's there?")
Vi: Chicken
Us: Chicken who?
Vi: Cock a doodle do! (Followed by a big laugh.) (This is funny stuff, you see.)

EDITED TO ADD: I've recently learned that I misheard Cora when she said what she wants to be when she grows up. She wants to be a pi-LOT, not a pi-rate. Oops. A pilot, for a little girl who flies as much as Cora Rose, makes a lot more sense, don't you think? Alas, not as funny, though.

Week in Review

On Wednesday, Cora's preschool class headed to the bowling alley for a "heart healthy" field trip.

In February, with Valentine's Day, the class spent some time focusing on the heart: how it functions, how big it is, how to eat well and exercise to keep it healthy.








The children had a lot of fun bumper bowling, though I must say I've never seen bowling balls move so slowly. Several times the workers had to come to rescue a dead ball.

Miss Lorrie provided a "heart healthy" snack for all the kids (and accompanying parents and siblings) - water, carrots, apple slices and whole-grain goldfish.

Wednesday was an exciting day in general. In the evening, our friend Christy and her boys came over for a visit. They live up north so we see them once or twice a year. It's neat how our oldests still have a great time together, just as they did as babies before William and his parents moved when he was around 1.

Cora was super excited all day Wednesday about her friends coming over, but sadly, when they actually arrived, she got very quiet and seemed shy and rude. It still can take her a while to warm up to situations! But, an hour in, the children were all playing together brilliantly.

They stayed two nights, and Thursday we went to Storytime at our church coffeehouse and later had a bike ride to the big park near our house.

On Friday, the children enjoyed Hart Park and Chuck E. Cheese, and in the evening, we went to the fish fry at St. Clare's. From left, we have John Paul (JP), Dominic, William and Cora.

Violet shared her room with Dominic, in the playpen, and it went remarkably well, considering how Violet sometimes does when sharing a room. The first night, she sang and sang and sang for well over an hour, every song in her repertoire (Old MacDonald, Happy Birthday, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs). She sang her friend to sleep!

The older boys shared Cora's room, with the trundle, and Cora slept on our floor. It all went just fine! Hopefully we can make the drive and visit Christy and Mitch this summer. Cora was so sad to see her friends go!