4-H Communication Arts

Zeke, Angelina and Dash participated in the Communication Arts Contest … barely.  I forgot to pre-register, but the forgiving Coordinator let us in because there were so few pre-registered.

 

Zeke reciting the humorous ‘Song of Mr. Toad’ by Kenneth Graham.

Angelina reciting ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  This is a favorite of mine.  Cool fact:  My dad was born on the 18th of April … though not in 1875!

Dash chose to recite ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’ by Robert Service.   It’s a humorous piece, don’t mind the name!

The representatives of LaMoure County.  All, except Cloverbuds, are eligible to go on to District competitions.

 

15/52

Joining Barbara in commemorating the year in once a week posts … just whatever is going on in your life: the mundane, the crazy, the normal, the everyday.

Still catching up…

My latest ‘thing’ – a two tier grow light system.  The kid's’ seeds & plugs are doing great!  And, I’ve started a number of seeds:  tomato, cucumber, pepper, squash, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, garden huckleberry, Morning Glory, Sweet Pea. 

This is the Mapleton exit of I-94.  Thank goodness I’m heading North.  The southern route is impassible.

Since we went home for my niece’s baptism on the 10th, thought I’d show you some of the flooding up there, too.  We left on the 9th – no flooding and the Mouse River was in it’s banks.  Time to come home on Monday, and it was out of the banks all over!  This is the Velva area just south of Minot.

The above picture is near Harvey!  This area of the state still had a LOT of melting to do …

...and this lovely picture, below, is from Friday the 15th!  Our late Spring Blizzard which dumped another 5-6 inches on the southern part of ND.  Eric and I went to Fargo in this muck, but we made it there and back safely.

 

Lots to tell …

 

but, there’s no time for me to tell it.  Life has just been full and I hope to share it and the random pictures I’ve taken as record.  Just wanted to let you know I’m still here and plugging away at it all.  I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP!

14/52

Joining Barbara in commemorating the year in once a week posts … just whatever is going on in your life: the mundane, the crazy, the normal, the everyday.

I’m catching up on my 52 weeks, please bear with me!

My brother and his family live near Casselton.  These are picks of their home/subdivision from the East.  Overland flooding closed the highway 10 on either side of their subdivision about 4/5 days later.  Theirs is the white house at the right edge.  Just an incredible amount of water.  They do not have a basement, and while water is higher than in 2009, it still did not threaten their home.  Thank goodness!

Cleaning the garage – great day for Spring Cleaning.  My brother, Pat was out to install shelving in our house garage.  The following pictures show him and Greg working on getting the shelving installed.  He also put up a work bench in our outside garage – it slopes to the sink, which is a very cool feature.

The last of the snowbank in our front yard.  And, the geese were definitely on their way north!  It was so loud, I could hear their honking inside the house.

 

Strange week.

On Monday, I underwent a dental procedure to graft skin from the roof of my mouth to an area on my lower jaw that was receding.  Does that make me feel old??  Yes.  Even if the Periodontist (another word that makes me feel old) said it wasn’t any of my doing … not because of poor brushing or dental care, in other words … I wonder if there wasn’t something that I should have done differently.  It’s just genetic, he said.  Still makes me feel old. 

The roof of my mouth is healing fine; the graft site is taking a little longer, obviously.  No hard foods for the first week is going okay, too.  Then yesterday, I woke up with hives.  Now, hives are something I get from time to time and yesterday really wasn’t too bad.  Last night was a different story.  If my immune system is overloaded, this is what happens when a seemingly small irritant is added.  Over the years, I have learned to avoid certain foods made with red food dye, as that seems to be a trigger.  However, most of the time I have no idea of the cause.  This time I have no idea.  I checked over the limited foods I’ve eaten and nothing sticks out.  It’s frustrating, as I would call this a more extreme reaction and it included symptoms I’ve not had before.  Boy, did I look lovely when I looked in the mirror at 3:20am.  Thank goodness the worst appears to be over (at least I won’t scare Louis and the rest of the kids) … I’ll be keeping my diet extremely bland today and in the days to come.

My mom came to stay with the kids on Monday because I wanted Eric to drive me to and from the appointment.  She left yesterday, but I’m so thankful she was here during the first few days.  It allowed me to take a NAP!  Now, that’s a rarity.

Couple other noteworthy items:

1. Everyone (except me, Louis, Graham and Mr. W) went to Live Stations on Wednesday night.  It was presented by a mime group.

2. New dishwasher installed yesterday.  It can hold more of our dishes, which is awesome.  I've washed one load with great results and am currently testing it on dirtier dishes … and pans.

3. The kids are finishing up subjects left and right as we approach the end of the school year.  I’ve added a few lap-books; the kids are having fun.

4. It’s sunny and the snow from our last blizzard has started to melt again … just in time for another blizzard expected to arrive this weekend.  Oh the joys of a ND Spring! 

5. Happy April Fools Day.  I have made no jokes in this post, but Angelina  and Graham have some pretty good ones planned.  Not sure about the other kids. 

13/52

Joining Barbara in commemorating the year in once a week posts … just whatever is going on in your life: the mundane, the crazy, the normal, the everyday.

 

Dash above and Angelina below, planting seeds.

Graham above and Zeke below, work on their plantings.

Our 4-H club went together with another local club for our gardening project.  Each kid planted seeds, plugs and cuttings.  Here’s a picture of the two groups out at the greenhouse.

Zeke holding his cousin, Mr. W.  This helped Grandma Golden Acres out quite a bit and enabled her to get packed and loaded up for the trip back to Lowry!  Zeke is such a nurturer and Mr. W just wanted to be held.