A Very Busy Weekend

It seems like it's feast or famine around here. For the past few weeks, life has been ho-hum status quo. However, on Wednesday we had some more snow, which is still actually status quo, except that Whit wasn't around for it this time. That's actually not uncommon either. But anyway, it suddenly got kind of busy around here on Thursday. We had such a nice day watching it snow, drinking hot chocolate (or tea) and working on history projects, that I didn't bother plowing on Wednesday evening. After all, it was supposed to keep snowing all night too. Thursday morning dawned bright and beautiful, as it does around here after our snowstorms, and we needed to leave for a day of co-op and music lessons shortly after 9am. I have to admit, I slightly misjudged how much snow I was going to have to try to push back with our Bolens tractor. (Well, it looked light and fluffy when it was coming down!) Whit made it look easy the week before, when we had about 8" of snow.

I, on the other hand, got the Bolens stuck on a patch of ice coming out of the barn. (No, I don't have a picture of that, thank you.) My neighbor across the street took one look at me behind that pile of snow and very kindly made a quick pass with his plow so I could at least get out of my driveway. However, I was in charge of snow removal this week, by golly, so I backed that traitorous Bolens back into the barn and fired up the Ford backhoe. Forget this messing around business. I was going for the big gun. After about half an hour, I had the driveway and our parking area clear, and we were off and running. You can see the additional snow we got. My cat Schmitty is lurking on the path. Just to the right, out of the picture, is my birdfeeder. I know, I know. I said I wasn't going to feed the birds this winter, but I felt really sorry for the blue jays which were picking at leftover pumpkin seeds in my front yard, and which also had flown into our woodshed to take shelter from the snowstorm. (You want to know how they're finding pumpkin seeds under two feet of snow, don't you? I don't know the answer to that, except that I hear them pecking next to the front door in the morning when it's quiet and I'm drinking my coffee.) So, I filled the feeder for them, but I've also noticed, they're on to Schmitty lurking there. I think blue jays are pretty smart.

On Friday, TBear spent the day at Barnes & Noble, playing music for, and also performing in, two shadow puppet shows. Later in the afternoon and evening, the kids fiddled in the store. It was a fundraiser for the Pineland Fiddlers' trip to Ireland this spring. Our Barnes & Noble donated a percentage of their sales that day to the Fiddlers. (Thank you Barnes & Noble!) In between the 10am puppet show, and the 3pm puppet show and fiddling, TBear sat with me in the book store coffee shop and did his schoolwork. It was actually a really nice day. Look at that boy. Doesn't he look like he's having a good time? No smiling allowed. Well, okay, smiling is encouraged, but they forget sometimes. : )

After lots of hockey on Saturday, I took TBear to a nursing home this afternoon where he and some other Pineland Suzuki students performed some more beautiful music for the patients. This performance has been postponed twice since December due to snowstorms, so it was especially nice that this last snowstorm missed the rescheduled date this time. They did, however, skip playing Christmas music, with the exception of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. It was wonderful to see the residents enjoying these kids' music as much as I do.
It'll be nice to go back to school tomorrow. We need the rest. : )