April Gems

The first day of April was Easter this year, and also the first holiday for us in this holiday filled month.  Last Easter we had no idea how much could change in a year!

I love the holiday services at our church, and this Easter was even better, with Opal in our arms.  Our lovely church was so sweet in welcoming Opal, and I had three different women tell me with tears in their eyes that they raised four girls too.  I know I will be one of those women someday, looking through misty eyes of a younger version of me.  What a privilege to share this bond with otherwise strangers but once this detail is known, strangers never more!  Below is our first family photo at our church, Charlie showing the girls how many eggs the Easter bunny left each girl in the yard, and our four girls, ready for their annual Easter egg hunt after church.

Charlie had fun chasing the girls while the girls hunted for their eggs.  I swear he even gave away some hiding spots!

April Fool's Day was on Easter this year, and because Will wasn't at work, we had to deal with his shenanigans.  Yes, he hot glued each googley eye on every container in our kitchen, including inside of our fridge.  I'm grateful that most years he is at work for this holiday and his coworkers can enjoy his creativity.

The next holiday at our house was Emma's 7th birthday!  Emma asked for a diary this year complete with a lock and key.  She was happy to receive it, along with Legos, a jigsaw puzzle, an LOL that turns colors submerged in water from her sisters, some books, and Lucy even passed on to Emma the statue that my friend gave Lucy from her childhood - of a girl, holding a cat, with the number seven on her dress.  Ironically, I had that same figurine when I was seven, but donated it long before I knew I would one day have four daughters!

The girls love the magnetic chalkboard in our dining room that I use for school, and I promised them that they could decorate it on their birthdays but every other day of the year it was mine to use.  Here Emma is below in the bottom, left hand picture, decorating with chalk markers to her heart's content.  Emma picked brownies with cream cheese frosting and strawberries for her birthday dessert and enjoyed helping make them in the kitchen, without having to share the baking with her sisters.

Our final holiday of the month was Lucy's 9th birthday.  Here Lucy is below, showing off some of her gifts which included the musical Hello, Dolly! (one of her favorites), the Lego set she was hoping for, books, and a jigsaw puzzle too.

Lucy was happy to erase Emma's artwork on the revered chalkboard and fill it with her creations.  She requested a chocolate bumpy cake for her birthday.

 We spent time with family this past month and in the pictures below in clockwise order from the top left: the girls and Grandma T playing shuffleboard against Grandpa T, Grandma Hines and Lucy holding Lucy's scarf over Violet on a hike that got hotter than we had planned for, cousins putting on a show for us, and the girls posing before birthday cake with Grandma and Grandpa T and proudly displaying the umbrellas they got from them for their birthdays.

 We spent time with friends...

...and still found time to continue with our schoolwork.  Keeping the girls on track so that we can end the school year on time is getting harder and harder to do.  What with all of these holidays and the weather getting nicer outside, the girls are easily distracted and not too motivated.  The photos in clockwise order from the top left below: Violet showing off her number cards that she put in order with a little help from her sisters, our haul from a regular visit to the library, Emma on her balance board doing math flash cards, our return stack for the library, Violet doing the last page in her preschool cutting book - she has come so far in one year with her scissor skills, Emma and Lucy showing me their art from their weekly drawing class, and finally in the center photo, the girls at their end of the year Catechism party where we did volunteer projects for various organizations.  Their favorite is pictured, making beaded bracelets for kids in need.

Will does a great job of involving the girls in the kitchen, and is more laid back about the dangers of knives and stoves.  No one has gotten hurt on his watch either, and the kids just love cooking with him.  I admit that this is not my gift - it stresses me out to have more than one kid helping me at a time, as their fighting over whose turn it is to do what wears on me, and our compact kitchen feels too crowded as well for my liking.  Will on the other hand just goes with the flow and because of this talent, the girls have learned how to make macaroni and cheese, tacos, sloppy joes, breakfast sausage and scrambled eggs.  In the pictures below in clockwise order: chicken empanadas made in bulk and ready for the freezer for some fast work lunches for Will, Will wearing a chef hat from one of Lucy's old Halloween costumes while having fun with the girls and cooking a delicious meal, beignets from a mix our neighbor brought back from New Orleans, and finally, a carrot that Will and Violet found in our garden as they were prepping it for the new growing season.

The girls love playing with the play silks a friend of mine made for us years ago, and it is one of the top ten things in our house that they play with.  Lately, it is scenery and wardrobe for the shows that they put on for us.

More indoor play is featured in the below pictures in clockwise order from top left: Violet who gave me a start when I thought that her baby doll was Opal, me reading bedtime stories with the girls, Violet explaining the story of the Three Little Pigs to me after she colored and built a story kit about them, Violet being a goof and tying herself to her chair with a sweater that was hanging over the back of it, and Emma soaking her feet to ward off the start of a springtime cold.

The start of April was unseasonably cold but the snow did melt and underneath it we found a pair of frozen solid mittens that the girls had lost earlier in the year.  The top, left hand picture below is Will coming in with the mittens, announcing to the girls, "Guess what I found!"  Keep in mind, they were still frozen stiff and flat, which gives a good indicator as to the spring we have had.  We did enjoy Opal's first walks this past month though, and the girls also enjoyed playing "restaurant" under the shrubs in our yard and also playing in general without the bulk of winter coats to weigh them down.

Towards the end of this month it was finally warm enough to eat outside, and even go for a bike ride or two.  Will installed a tree swing that the girls have really enjoyed riding, and in the bottom left hand picture below is a headstone we discovered in our neighborhood cemetery that appears to have sunken into the ground.  Talk about creepy!

While I was pregnant with Opal, I developed an allergy to my honey.  This is probably the worst thing I could ever become allergic to and after having allergy testing done, the blood test revealed that I am allergic to honey bee venom.  My raw honey has honey bee venom in it, and hence why I was unable to eat it.  I am hoping to not be allergic, now that I am not pregnant, but until I can be retested this summer, Will is handling the bees for me.  He knows how sad I am about this, and so is trying to be as sweet as possible about it.  The photos below in clockwise order from top left: Will, texting me a photo of him installing the bees at our friend's property north of us, Will installing the bees at our house, Will helping to package up our online yard sign orders, more online orders being packaged up, and finally, the bees with the sunset behind them.  Oh, so beautiful, and I can't even tell you how happy it made me to get the texts from Will of his happy face with my bees that he set up in the background.  I couldn't ask for any more, except to pass my allergy test this summer!  In the meantime, I am a lucky gal to have Will bee a keeper too.

 Our crocus were still in bloom in April...

 ...followed by the daffodils, dandelions, violets and tulips.  Everything bloomed late this year, but we were still able to find Emma's flower, daffodils, that bloomed the day she was born, Lucy's flower, tulips, that bloomed the day she was born, and Violet's flower, violets, which of course bloomed the day she was born.  Our front lawn was covered in violets at the end of this month and Violet was practically rolling around in them.  She proudly told me, "It's like the whole world is my name!"

These days, my life is full of busy times with lots of demands on me and seemingly like not enough of me to go around.  There are gems of moments sprinkled in however, that keep me going, that keep a smile on my face, that remind me that this hard-work chapter of my life is so worth it, and that there is no where else I would rather be - or anyone else I would rather be with for that matter.  Most of the photos on this blog are snapped during the "gem" moments and I hope that I remember the harder moments as time goes on too, so that the golden haze of memory is realistic.  However, who wants to pause and take a photo of the tough times?  I usually remember during the best times - and below is no exception.

I took this picture to remember the feeling of overwhelming pride and gratitude as I enjoyed a beautiful spring walk with my four beautiful girls.  Why life demands a price for such happiness, paid in sleep-deprivation, not enough of me to go around, cold meals and Opal's screams on car rides is a question I still ponder.  But, I think the more appropriate question is why must gratitude, which leads to happiness, only be truly appreciated when experienced through challenges?  This is a special time in my life right now, with such extremes between trials and joy, that my hope is to be fully present for it so that I may remember this time, filled with both tough times and gems, combined together to create one very grateful, and easily made happy (think hot shower, hot meal, hot tea, a quiet moment with all of my children content) woman.