I've moved my family site to blogger because it's much easier for me to manage (and do!) there.  Come see!  (there's even pictures) 

http://pattyjowysong.blogspot.com/

See ya there!

Well, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then this post should get me at least caught up.    Between school, judging at Faithwriters and doing a few things at Patterings, I've been swamped.  Oh, and every time I went to upoload photos we had storms moving all around and my connection was real slow...

Let's see...a recap of this spring:  Rain, rain and more rain.  School.  P & G (Dad & Mom) came to visit, the kids were in a church musical (Go, Go Jonah), more school, more rain, and now it's kinda hot and still doing school.  We're doing school through the summer--just a modified version of it.  Our goal is to do 4 days of school a week, which they can do in two, when they apply themselves.  Alex is doing that and he's getting to work with Jim three days and get his school done in the two days he's home, and anytime he can squeeze it in.  As a result, I've been doing school SIX days a week these last few weeks (which the kids don't seem to realize as they moan and groan about school!!) and my days with Alex are loooooooong days.  It's worth it, but it's not exactly easy or even fun.  Ivan is working toward the same schedule...we'll see if he can do it.  Oh, he CAN do it, it's just whether he WILL or not! 

Here's a pictute of Socrates.  We found him one Sunday in May.  He'd been dumped and was trotting down our road.  There was no doubt about keeping him, nor his name.  Alex jumped out of the van and walked him home where we fed him and smothered him with love.  The first few nights he slept in the house, but since then he's been banned because of ticks.  I can't keep the ticks off him so he's stuck outside--much to his disgust.  He LOVES people and running--oh, and swimming in the little creek, which nullifies the tick drops I put on him and the baths I give him.  He thinks he's a person and sleeps on our benches and sits in the lawn chairs if we leave them out.  The kids love him, and so do I.  He's an Irish Setter and very well mannered.  Whoever owned him before us did a very good job training him...he was a town dog.  How do we know?  He plays with toys, but doesn't know what to do with sticks.  When he went walking with me he was afraid of goats (little pygmie goats!!) and shied away when the roosters crowed, but walked very nicely on a leash. 

Church friends outgrew this buggy and passed it on to us.

Here's Jim and Alex helping get Abby going.  She was so funny to watch, but not as funny as listening to Alex as he flew around the yard shrieking.  I think Alex laughs or screams the whole time he's on it. 

Here's Ivan during the church kid's musical.  It was soooo good and the kids did a fabulous job!!  I was sooo impressed, not only with my kids, but all the kids.  It's the kids I work with on Wednesday nights and they can be a Huge Handful!!  Esther and Ivan sang, Abby had the lead speaking part (and did ABsolutely FABulous!!) and Isaac got to act out the wild Ninehvites with his kindergarten classmates.)

Here's Isaac and Jonah, his friend from church.  They're both in my Wednesday night class now--they just moved up this week.  Isaac is much taller than Jonah and they have fun together.

And here's Esther.  This week she got to move across the street on Wednesday night, so she's part of the youth group now.  She's so excited to be in there--it's a big move for her.  Come September she'll move over there for Sunday School, too, but until then she's just there on Wed. nights for the youth services.  It helps the kids adjust better in the fall...going from grade school to the big kids, so they kind of ease them in over the summer.

I've been busy with my writing 'stuff' too.  I've started Fiction Fridays on my Pattering blog, and that seems to be going over well.  Some of the people who have joined have BIG blogs--with lots of readers--so it will be interesting to see if it grows out beyond my small circle of writing friends--which is the goal.  But if it doesn't, I'm not worried about it.  ...I've been doing a lot of studying of blogs and websites and learning sooo much--I've really enjoyed it.  And of course I've been writing.  I've taken a month off of fiction writing and I've been working on non-fiction stuff--it's all on my Patterings site--and I've seen improvement, which is encouraging, but it's time to get back to fiction, I'm beginning to go through withdrawal.   

That's what's been going on here.  And now I've got to get back to my judging.  (this is my week as a judge at Faithwriters and I'll be done with it by tomorrow afternoon)

Well, I seem to be remaining consistently inconsistent.    I'm doing better on my other blog: http://impeej.blogspot.com/ but only because I'm using some reprints from last year.   The most recent blog there is a reprint about last year's Easter presentation. This year Jim's in the choir and Ivan and Esther sing a song with the children's choir, but the rest of us aren't involved. Abby and I are helping with the children's choir (getting them in, seated and keeping them quiet—what a challenge!)

Last Sunday Isaac's 'Little Angels Choir' did their Easter presentation, they acted out 'The Three Trees' and it was adorable. Isaac got to play Jesus and say 'Peace!' He was so pleased. They had the whole church in stitches.

That's life here at this point. The flooding has gone down, but our yard is still as soggy as a sponge and there's plenty of road damage and the fields are a mess. The daffodils are just beginning to bloom and we've had robins since the first of the month. I was sooooo ready for Spring this year!! We had entirely too much snow! (LoL—I'm such a wimp when it comes to snow!!)

Happy Easter, everyone!! What a glorious day we celebrate today!!