Kid news-mostly

Guess life has been unbloggable for a while. Some of it I needed a bit of time to figure out what to say, and I figure you're all getting tired of "my garden is blooming" (but the irises really were spectacular last week!). Fortunately, flowers seem to grow with less effort on my part than my kids do.

Tori is working at Ruby Tuesday's, and seems to be doing well. We're see her once or twice a week. Her sibs and I all miss having her around, but this is part of the growing up phase.

Eliza is excited that she finally knows where she will be next year, even if she doesn't yet have a family assigned. She'll be about 85KM outside of Budapest (Hungary), and leaves in "two months, three weeks, and one day". Tuesday is her last ever day of high school in the US, and she's doing a bit of gloating-especially when Miriam comes in with her "___ days of school" countdown. The retort is usually something about Liza's college class continuing through the end of the month.

Such lovely children, and they don't bicker at all! (And if you'll buy that. . .)

James, Kyle and I will be going out for dinner at Ruby Tuesday's on our way to Liza's recital this evening. I wonder what we're going to find to fill our schedules when we only have two teenagers loading the calendar??? It feels like we'll go from five teenagers to only two in the space of less than five months-Tori moving out, Eliza off to Hungary, and Kyle's schedule is becoming less predictable and will be scant due to band August -November. Very wierd, and very fast, somehow.

Speaking of Kyle, he made Tenderfoot in Scouts this week, and received his letter in Band at last week's Band Awards Banquet. Sometimes the distance between our house and his mother's really sucks. We would have loved to be there to cheer him on, but. . .

Samuel continues juggling kung fu, cycling, Scouts, drums, schooling, reading voraciously, and just generally enjoying life. He's glad to be wrapping up the school year, and has his portfolio review on Wednesday. He is looking forward to going back to school for eighth grade next fall.

Miriam is wrapping up her seventh grade year. Completion of the Spring Concert means no more early morning rehearsals. Friday was "the last day to dress for PE". She's getting the experience of major exams with the HSA (High School Assessment) and final exam in Algebra I.
Meanwhile, James and I enjoy puttering in our garden and digging in the dirt. After a visit to an ecovillage, we're figuring out where to tuck a few Nanking cherry bushes and other edibles. . . stay tuned there. I think the scantily blooming forsythia bushes are not long for this world, except as compost for the new bushes!