Day 120: Still campaigning for that bond measure...

Eighteen days until the election and I had two helpers today as I canvassed our neighborhood and encouraged people to vote "Yes!" for our schools. Fortunately, the weather was beautiful - cool and sunny - so it was a much more pleasant experience than last time. Here are my helpers taking a well-deserved break...

Day 119: The Great Gatsby

I am rereading this book for my book club next week. Oh my goodness, it is so tragic and so beautifully written - love it!

Day 118: Sewing project

Anna is learning to cross-stitch, a favorite childhood hobby of mine.

Day 117: Chocolate nests

Making these Shredded Wheat chocolate nests is an annual family tradition. We usually do it on Easter Saturday but were just too busy this year. It was fun to make them (and eat them!) today.

Day 116: New jigsaw puzzle

It's still raining, but, with a new fire truck puzzle, it really doesn't matter...

Day 115: Light

It must have been a busy day - this is the ONLY picture I took. Noah drew my attention to this pattern of light on the ceiling of our living room this morning: sunlight refracted (?) through the multicolored glass of a candle holder. It also proves that the sun did come out today, albeit briefly.

Day 114: Resurrection Day!

We had a wonderful time at church this morning, celebrating Jesus' resurrection, and were privileged to attend two delightful Easter parties, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. We all do know that Egg Hunts are not THE most important part of Easter, but they certainly make for great photos.

Day 113: Easter Egg Hunt

Our church and another church combined forces today to put on an Easter Fun Day. We used stories, crafts, games and songs to take the children through the events of Holy Week and ended up with an Easter Egg Hunt. We had the best weather of the year so far!

Day 112: Birthday letter

Day 111: Another tulip

This tulip is in my garden. I had a really stressful morning for a number of reasons and it was very reassuring and restorative to my sense of well-being to come outside after a particularly hard shower of hail and find my tulips still looking great.

Day 110: Tulip Festival

How can I pick just one photo from a wonderful afternoon at the Tulip Festival? We go every year and are always staggered by the beauty of the flowers. I have some lovely close-ups of tulips and, of course, some great shots of the kids but this picture gives a sense of the sweep of color across the fields and I love the snowy hills in the distance.

Day 109: Trampoline

Anna is really enjoying her gymnastics class - I think the trampoline is her favorite part.

Day 108: First harvest of the year

Johnny picked rhubarb from our garden this afternoon and I made a rhubarb-strawberry crisp for dinner - heaven! We have two new raised beds this year and I really need to start planting our vegetable garden.

Day 107: Palm Sunday

I love Palm Sunday and Holy Week. Here's Anna with her palm cross, listening to David read the Palm Sunday story as today's service began.

Day 106: Soccer match

The boys' team didn't win this week but they certainly played hard.

Day 105: Playing catch with Daddy

Undaunted by the rain, Noah asked each member of the family to play catch with him today.

Day 104: Another project complete...

I've been knitting a sweater for a precious little boy who was born very prematurely weighing less than two pounds. He is now five and a half pounds and, although I hope the sweater fits, if it is too small, I can just celebrate the fact that he has grown!

Day 103: Hail

It was really coming down today...

Day 102: Fencing lesson

This was Daniel's second fencing lesson - he loves it!

Day 101: Reflection

Anna was enjoying the strange reflection of her face in my mixing bowl - and there is Daniel playing the piano in the background.

Day 100: Bike ride

Nothing like a Sunday afternoon bike ride, especially when wearing a sequined skirt and glittery shoes.

Day 99: Late night baking

We have been without internet for a week - but we survived! I have more than a week's worth of pictures to catch up, so here goes: this is Johnny saving the day on Saturday evening after I realized after dinner that I had signed up to provide the coffee hour treats for church the next day. He baked three cakes for me, which were all delicious. Incidentally, earlier in the day, he and Daniel played in their first soccer match of the spring season, and Johnny scored his team's first goal.

Day 98: First mow of the year

LOVE the smell of fresh-cut grass...

Day 97: Magnolia tree

It is unseasonably cold here in Portland but Spring is certainly here. This is a magnolia tree near the field where the boys have soccer practice - I really want one in my garden!

Day 96: Field trip

I went to OMSI with my students today and they had a wonderful time at a hands-on workshop about Egyptian engineering, in conjunction with the museum's Lost Egypt exhibition. Here are some of them "irrigating the Nile".

Day 95: Driveway moment

I had planned to post a picture of Johnny's choir concert (like this - great job, Allison!), but I committed one of photography's cardinal sins and didn't check the camera battery before setting off for the concert this evening. A dead battery means that I need to resort to using a picture I took this morning while unloading the car in the driveway. I was distracted by these blossoms - love the color!

Day 94: Heading home...

Our week in San Francisco was over - Daniel wondered why the time had gone by SO quickly. Another twelve hour car journey home, and again the children were excellent travelers. I was very moved to look back and see such brotherly affection on Daniel's face...

Day 93: Stinson Beach

Once again, almost impossible to choose just one picture. We had a delightful hike through the beautiful Muir Woods, where coastal redwoods grow, and then drove along the breathtaking coastal road to Stinson Beach, where the children played in the sand and waded in the surf. Another perfect day...

Day 92: Wedding Day

Two very wonderful, very happy people! Congratulations Nan and Pete!

Day 91: Alcatraz

We could see Alcatraz from the living room window of the house in which we were staying during our time in San Francisco, and we were excited to visit the prison. Twelve of us took the ferry over to the island and had a truly fascinating day. There is an extremely well-done audio tour of the prison and we learned a great deal about its history. Daniel concluded that he doesn't want to be sent to jail, so we'll consider that money well spent.

Day 90: Golden Gate Bridge

It is SO hard to pick just one picture to represent a day when so many lovely things happened every day of our trip. We were blessed with fantastic weather and spent a lot of time outdoors. A big group of us walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and enjoyed the glorious sunshine and blue skies. The highlight for Anna was spotting numerous dolphins in the bay just below the bridge.

Day 89: Go Giants!

I confess I still don't truly understand baseball but we had an extremely fun afternoon watching the World Series champions, the San Francisco Giants, play the Oakland A's. After a fairly uneventful, low-scoring game in which the A's were ahead throughout, the Giants snatched victory in the final few dramatic moments, to rapturous cheers from the home crowd. Noah chanted "Go Giants!" all the way home.

Day 88: Evening stroll

What a joy to arrive in San Francisco and see beloved grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! Our older three children walked down to Fisherman's Wharf with David and other family members and had a wonderful afternoon visiting the touristy shops and touring a submarine. Noah and I stayed home so that he could take a nap and, when he woke up, he and David and I took a lovely stroll along the marina, looking out at Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge in the early evening sunshine.

Day 87: Road Trip

I LOVE road trips. David and I have been going on road trips together for more than twenty years now and I still get the same thrill of excitement, anticipating an extended time in the car with him. Some of our best ever conversations have been on long car journeys. Fortunately, our children also enjoy road trips and this was the longest ever for us. We decided to drive all the way to San Francisco in one day: eleven hours of driving and a total journey time of eleven hours and forty-five minutes! The kids were wonderfully behaved and remarkably tolerant of the way we packed all our things in the car around them. We read books, played games (Johnny, Daniel and I played travel Scrabble and managed to only mislay one tile), listened to "The Lord of the Rings" on CD, had great conversations and enjoyed some spectacular scenery in southern Oregon and northern California. It was a great start to our trip!