Alpha Omega - State Math Tournament

May 3.

Thomas participated in Alpha Omega Math Club again this past year, and he and the team made the state finals, which were held at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.  After a super-early morning getting on the road to get to the campus by 9:00 a.m., Thomas met up with his teammates and the various competitions began.

Thomas and Jacob hanging out waiting for Thomas' teammates to gather.

The hall where the opening ceremony was held.

The area in the Student Union where family and teammates could meet up throughout the day.

Since he had the day off, Jacob came with us and met up with his buddy Nathan for lunch on campus.

Thomas had lunch with us in the Student Union.

Give Fernando a croissant, and this is what he does...

Jacob thinking about what to do for the afternoon.

During the afternoon competitions, Fernando and I wandered around campus and found this sculpture park, Darwin's Playground.

Finally, the awards ceremony began.

Thomas went forward to receive his award--Division 1A, Individual Test Score--Ninth Place!

Thomas and Adair went forward to receive another award--Pre-Calculus Team, Ninth Place!

The entire team went forward to receive their team award--Fifth Place in state, Division 1A, Team Score!

After the ceremony, the team and family members went outside for more pictures.

Celebrating with Mrs. M, Team Leader.

Thomas got to hold the Team 5th Place trophy.

Mrs. M and Thomas

After the ceremony, everyone found their cars and met up at an Italian fast food restaurant for dinner.  It was an exhausting day, to be sure, but a very fun one, too!  Plus it was fulfilling to see the rewards for all the hard work the team members put forth to win all the awards they did.

Back to life,
Christine

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My April Flowers

April 21.

Just a few of my favorite early spring flowers!

Scilla.

Sage.

Daffodil.

April 26.

Just a few days later...

Asiatic lily.

The color is so brilliant it almost hurts my eyes.  After the brown, gray, and white of winter, any spots of color are welcome, like the long absence of a dear friend.


Back to life,
Christine

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Resurrection Day 2014

April 20.

Resurrection Sunday was a family day.  We celebrated the resurrection of Jesus--without whom we would be lost and dead in our sin--and two birthdays!  My dad turned 82 (4/13) and Danny turned 21 (4/16).  We hosted the family gathering, most of whom enjoyed the amazing weather on our back yard patio.

 My dad has the privilege of falling asleep whenever and wherever he's tired.  :)

I took just the one picture above, then a few of our cake/singing/birthday-wishing time.

 Dad.

Fernando.

Jeff, Danny, and Dad share a funny moment.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us,

in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood,

we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God

through the death of His Son,

much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have no received the reconciliation.

Romans 5:8-11 NASB

Back to life,
Christine

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Updating My Organized Kitchen Drawers

Remember last year when I made my own drawer organizers for two of my kitchen drawers?  (And if you haven't read that post, it's the place to start if you want to build inexpensive drawer organizers!)

Well, after a year or so, the silverware drawer looked like this:

The weight of the silverware caused the bottom of the drawer to bow, which then created a gap between my organizer and the drawer bottom, which then caused the silverware to creep around the drawer.  Ugh.  Dearest hubby attempted to glue the organizer right to the bottom of the drawer, but as you can see in the above image, that didn't hold.  After thinking a bit, I decided I would try to use the weight of the silverware to my advantage--and it worked!  (Which is why I'm posting this, lol!)

We pulled the drawer out, and removed the entire organizer.  I traced the middle sections of the organizer onto the leftover sturdy board I had kept from this same project--meaning no extra cost, whew.

After tracing the openings onto the sturdy board, I sweet-talked Fernando into cutting the shapes out for me, and then I positioned each one in the bottom of its compartment then drew a bead of Elmer's Glue around the edges.

Below is what it looked like after all the sections were in.  I ran out of sturdy board, so I decided that since most of the main silverware (forks, knives, spoons) were in those center sections, I'd leave the edges bare and see how that held up--which it's doing fine so far.

Once the glue around the insides was dry, I flipped over my organizer and drew beads of glue around the sections here:

It's always a good idea to let that glue dry thoroughly before using the organizer!  So, the next day, we inserted the organizer back into the drawer, and I filled it up again.  Can you see all the silverware and serving utensils there in the below image, upper left?  I tried so hard to keep them organized the way I had them in the drawer!

And, here you go!  This "new and improved" organizer is doing great, and things are staying neat and tidy!

Back to life,
Christine

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April in My Vegetable Garden and More

April 18.

After I watched the guys get out all the yard stuff, I wandered into the back yard to check out my veggie garden.  Here's the overview:

The rhubarb is growing nicely!  I'm always amazed that within a week or so it grows from just a pearly red nub pushing up out of the ground to this!

I also have a number of purple onions coming up from last year!  This was a treat, since I decided I wouldn't plant onions this year.

Here are the three beds in a row.  You can see the strawberry plants coming up through the remaining straw.  Yay for delicious red fruit!

Behind my veggie garden, way in the back point of our pie-shaped yard, waited my special place.  It's really just a bench, a kidney-shaped pile of dirt, and a few flowers that manage to grow up without any assistance from me.

Sitting on the bench, I can look out on my veggie garden beds.

Here's the view from the back-most corner of our back yard.

You probably know by now I stand on the deck of our pool to take pictures of my veggie garden, and my special place, below.  Now you can see what I'm talking about--pile of dirt and all!

Every year I say it, but someday it'll be done, and it'll be my outdoor sanctuary, my thinking spot, my garden oasis just steps from our door!


Back to life,
Christine

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Warm Weather at Last!

April 18.

It was finally warm enough that we figured it was time to pull out the bikes and the backyard furniture!

Joseph carried the tote of pool stuff around to the back yard.

Joseph was stuck, gate wouldn't open.  Danny peeked over the fence.

Fernando passed the shovel over to Danny to dig out the grass that had grown up in front of the gate.

Lawn chairs!

Back in the garage, Thomas pumped up bike tires.

Danny dug out the gate.

Success!

The guys got everything out, and we were really hoping the warm weather would stick around for awhile!


Back to life,
Christine

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