Nearing the Finish Line

May is almost over. School is almost over.

My older kids are a bit stressed out over all the end-of-school stuff. My youngest (6th grade) is bored in school, because they do even less than usual. 

E and H have a few upcoming tests and projects. E started a 2-month online course to satisfy next year's history requirement - and it is a lot more work than he anticipated. H's Envirothon team won the state competition and she is now studying for nationals. They want to be done - they want to rest and relax and sleep in. Ha. Welcome to the real world, babies.

E is also stressed about the upcoming graduation ceremony, where his strings group is going to be playing a bunch of music, including Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance". The senior class has an amazing group of musicians (very strong violins, violas, and cello) - and they are losing all of them (and they can't perform during their own graduation ceremony). The current group of kids are not as strong - and the worse part is, they don't practice. E is supposed to lead the group and he is getting frustrated about having to be encouraging while making sure that they are prepared (he can't go east-style "You are terrible!!! Work hard or you will FAIL!!!" - all the kids are American and only a couple have immigrant parents; he must do west-style "nice job, everyone, that sounded pretty good, but could use some improvement."). 

He is going to really miss his graduating musician friends.

School is officially over on June 12. 

In other news: I had an encounter with a box turtle on my morning hike! It was crossing the forest path. You got this, turtle!

Also, I saw a new-to-me merganser duck. The photo did not come out well, but the duck was really cool.

What are you looking forward to this summer? What were the memorable things that happened in May?

Memorial Day Weekend

Doesn't it seem like "Memorial Day Weekend" is somewhat of an oxymoron? I mean, it's either a "day" or a "weekend", but a weekend is not a day... and a day is not a weekend...

Or maybe this is just my morning brain fog making objects appear weirder than they actually are.

Anyway... we had a nice long weekend.

Friday:

• C went to a birthday party
• H had a few friends over after school
• The rest of us relaxed (except E - he had homework)

Saturday:

• Lots of cleaning (about time! with crazy work things, stuff has been really piling up all over the place)
• Some cooking
• Friends came over for dinner

Sunday

• Cirque du Soleil
• Resting/reading
• Watched Gilmore Girls with H and C

Monday:

• Cooking
• E's friends came over first thing in the morning (8am!!!) - they were planning their future trip across the country
• Shopping with the girls (swim suits)
• C's cello lesson
• Parents came over 
• Made ice cream using the ice cream machine we got mom for her birthday (she doesn't want it! which means I have to figure out something else for her)
• Mom usually loves all types of kitchen gadgets
• But not the ice cream maker, unfortunately

Webs

There is one thing that bothers me when I go on forest walks in the morning.

Spiderwebs.

It's not as bad as walking into a giant web face-first - not an uncommon occurrence from my chilhood. Usually, these are just baby-webs that the spiders got started on but never got a chance to complete. 

Still, they cling to my face and arms, and I don't love that feeling.

There is enough human traffic on the trails to prevent anything big from being spun, but first thing in the morning, I may be the first one through, and oh boy, those spiders must have had a busy few hours since the sunrise.

So, if you happen to see a person waving arms randomly while walking along a trail - that's probably me, doing preventative arm movements to avoid getting the spiderwebs on my face. Or if you see a person waving a tree branch in front of them - yep, also me.

As little as I appreciate spiderwebs on my face, I have to say - I truly, really appreciate spiders. Anything that eats mosquitos is my friend.

May Updates - Mostly Not Great (But Nothing Terrible)

We had 5 bluebird eggs in the nest a few days ago:

And now there are none. I am so sad.

Not sure what happenned - a predator, maybe? Or could be another bird trying to take over the nest and tossing out eggs.

Kids are done with APs and Keystones. There is almost a month of school left, but all 3 kids complain that school is pointless and they don't do anything. 

There are bunnies in our garden. We set out a trap - will see if we can relocate a few...

Our fig tree has an infestation of some sort - I think we need to cut it down. I guess it could regrow from the root.

There were a few days below freezing in late April, so most of our azalea flowers were destroyed. Our mulberry tree was hit pretty hard by the freeze, too. It is bouncing back with some new leaves, but we won't be getting any berries this year. And I think a lot of fruit on the trees dropped, including pawpaws. 

Fast forward to mid-May: it's hot and humid. We have air conditioning running in the house. Even in the morning, the air is heavy and sticky.

What are your wins and losses this May?

A Walk in the Park

I've been going for walks at a nearby park, following the same loop (up the hill along the paved road, shortcut tthrough the forest path, down the paved trail along the stream, and back to where I started). There are a couple of things I've been noticing.

The path through the forest is always changing. It is is under constant attack from all sorts of shrubs, grasses, and briars - I need to start brining clippers with me, to help maintain the trail.

Today, there was a fallen tree blocking the way, along with a multidue of branches, vines, and shrubs that came down with the tree. My husband (he works from home on Thursdays and usually joins me on walks) and I contemplated turning back but decided against it. We considered going under the tree - but there just wasn't enough room to crawl through. So we had to go over it, which involved lots of hand-holding (literally), pulling each other, holding branches out of the way, and checking for poison ivy.

That adventure added about 5 minutes to our walk. 

I started to recognize the people that I see in the park. There is the man with the beard walking a hunting dog who never says hello or nods. He doesn't seem unfriendly, just deep in his thoughts. There is the man with two giant dogs (long-haired German Shepherds, maybe?) - we nod to each other but the dogs pretend like I'm not there. There is the lady with the dangling keys who is nearly always passing me (she walks fast! and I can hear her coming...). There is S., our neighbor, who recently lost her husband, and walks at least one of her dogs (Casey) in the park. Her other dog (Millie) prefers shorter walks in the neighborhood, so S first goes around the block with Millie and then drives to the park with Casey. We stop and chat for a few minutes. There is the couple who walk their mid-size white-and brown dog (I can't figure out the breed) who always smile and nod and the dog appears super friendly.

Occasionally, I'll see parents with young kids in stollers, but no one that comes on a regular basis.

Some people are running but I studiously ignore them (why does it feel somehow improper to stare at runners?)

There are a few bikers, but they all look the same to me in their helmets and bibs - it's quite possible that I've been seeing the same people riding bikes every day, but I really can't tell. The best I can do is "that one has a short gray beard!"  - which is about half of the men riding bikes. 

Dear Reader: any memorable walks laterly?

Work Madness

I've had a rough couple of weeks - overwhelming high-stress, super-urgent projects. I know that once I am done with these - I will be very not-busy, and looking for additional projects. I like being busy and having lots of work. I don't like starting my day and realizing that there is almost nothing on my to-do list. 

Apologies, I am rambling. 

It's not the work that is stressing me out. It's the new clients. It's the lack of a good process that I've come to take for granted when working with established clients. It's the fact that they ignore our advice, our recommended ways of getting from point A to B to C. They throw our entire way of doing things into disarray. 

Like my boss says, the work is great - interesting, challenging... The only problem are the clients...

Dear Reader: In your line of work, what would you get rid of?

What We Saw, With Feelings

C and I were sharing our hammock yesterday, relaxing and enjoying the nice evening.

Here's what we saw:

• Bats
• Fireflies (in early May!)
• Geese flying in formation
• Bluebird sitting on top of the bird house
• Robins
• Tree branches swaying in the wind
• Rabbit
• Squirrels

We read a bit, we chatted a bit.

We had a pretty intense weekend and I'm not back to normal yet. We had a health scare with C - she is OK, everything is OK - but I still have this underlying sense of dread. Even though I know she is fine, that spike of terror at the possibiliy of a major health problem, it doesn't just dissipate immediately. It's strange how emotions play catch-up with facts.

In other news:

• H is done with her AP exams
• E has 3 AP exams coming up
• My father, husband, C, and I went to a Kazakh restaurant - the food was delicious and we chatted with the friendly waiter, whose father served near Baikonur around the same time my father was there as a military doctor
• Mom and E went to see Itzhak Perlamn and other musicians 
• We planted 2 baby fig trees. Our older fig trees show no signs of life - but they typically leaf in pretty late, so we are not loosing hope yet. Mulberry tree is also leaf-less.
• H is preparing for Envirothon competition

What do you notice when sitting and relaxing someplace quiet?