March 20-27

Though I haven't written an actual on time post in a while, there are a few bonus posts that have gone up recently, so make sure you catch Sound Bites 10 and March 6-20 Words.  Also, if you're a reader who usually gets an email, you could have missed several months of posts due to a Blogger issue that appears to be last on the list of things they're going to fix (ever).

First, a confession: We did not fill out March Madness brackets this year.  It was something of a tradition for us to have even the kids fill out brackets (you may recall the detailed process of Olivia's first bracket), but we've gradually lost hold of the tradition and this year didn't even notice that our chance had come and gone until it was too late.  Oh well.

Sunday was our bi-monthly trip to La Comedia.  We saw Fiddler on the Roof and it was sadly underwhelming.  The poor singers just could not keep up with the pre-recorded music.  If there's one thing I don't like about La Comedia, it's their lack of live musicians.  It doesn't usually bother me much, but it was especially obvious in this show.  That aside, Fiddler is a great show and we enjoyed ourselves.  We spent the night in Sidney and then drove back home Monday at lunchtime.

Tuesday was spent making pierogis with people from church.  None of us had ever made them before, but they're not too hard.  We made several large batches and froze them so that we can use them throughout Lent.

On Wednesday I packed the girls into the car and took them to JCPenney to get Kaitlyn's one-year pictures.  Here's a link where you can go look at them.  At some point I should figure out how to put them right in my blog, but that's a project for another day.  Olivia and Gretchen were incredibly patient, and Kaitlyn decided she'd rather walk than stand still.  The photographer got some good shots, though, and now Kaitlyn can join the gallery on our wall.  :)

Thursday was rainy and gross, but that didn't stop us from driving up to Michigan to pick up Jillian.  She's on Easter break and decided to come hang out in Ohio for some of her time off.  Jacob also came down later in the evening, and I was only a little bit sad about the communication failure that resulted in me fetching Jillian rather than Jacob bringing her.

Friday morning was Liturgy (for Annunciation) and it sounded like I'd brought my own choir to church with me.  :)  Shortly after we got home the Kleins arrived for a playdate.  Two hours later brought Jacque to visit as well.  We all hung out and had a good time until the Kleins had to leave, and then it was off to the Weys for our newly established recurring game night.  We brought Jacque, Jacob, and Jillian with us, ate chili and kale salad, put the girls to bed upstairs, and played games.  All three girls did well going to sleep at not-their-house and the transfer to the car and then to their own beds later in the night went smoothly, so we should be able to do this again.  :)

Saturday was a rather busy lazy day.  Bryan and Jillian ran to the store for fruit leather ingredients and we got the dehydrator started.  Bryan did a lot of dishes and then weeded my raspberry patch.  He reports that at least two of the plants are alive.  He also noticed that four of our seven trees have green buds on them!  I popped some beans in the pressure cooker (which is becoming less terrifying the more I use it) and when they were done Jillian and I went shopping for dinner ingredients and dress fabric.  Sarah met us at JoAnn to hold my hand while I picked out material for the girls' Pascha dresses and Jillian helped me finalize decisions after Sarah left.  I now have all the things I need to make what should be incredible cute dresses.  :)

Today is Kaitlyn's birthday and we're having cake made with a Lenten recipe I just discovered.  We'll have her smash a small one and hopefully someone will remember to take pictures...

Pictures:
Jillian took the wheat challenge and the grinder came all the way off the counter before she was done:

Gretchen helped me make pancakes (she even flipped a few by herself):

Gretchen being cute in Jacque's sunglasses:

I got a new shoulder rest.  I'm not sure how old my previous one was (I don't remember ever getting a new one, actually, so it might be the first shoulder rest I ever owned for a viola), but the difference was startling: