You've Probably Been Wondering...

...where the heck I've been over the past almost week.  I've had several emails from folks wondering if everything's ok.

It is.  We're A-ok.

The truth is I don't have a really good reason.  I guess it's just been busy around here.  And I also haven't felt like blogging.

I do find my desire to blog ebbs and flows like most things in life.  I have felt my interest waning in the past few weeks and even now, I'm not sure I feel like blogging quite yet, but I'm here because my desire is inching up the hill again.  Ultimately, blogging is a real outlet for me and I know I'll keep coming back to it.

About the busyness...

Last week was full of Easter prep.  Crafts for the kids, baking, cleaning.  I made a delicious lemon curd, which I used the next day to make figure-eight lemon buns; and I also baked Paska (Easter bread).

Also, a week ago found me frantically tidying my disastrous house.  My brother decided to fly into town for Easter weekend and I heard myself offering to host the clan of us for dinner on Saturday night.  What the heck was I thinking? I thought, as I cleaned yet another pile of h/school crap paper off of the dining room table.

For the past few months, we've forgone the use of our basement h/school classroom in favour of doing our school work at the kitchen and dining room tables.  As a result, the dining room surfaces and one kitchen counter have increasingly been crammed full of piles and piles of books and papers and work in progress.  It was getting pretty bad, and certainly nowhere near ready to have a people over for dinner!

So we (by which I mostly mean I) spent the better part of three days organizing, tossing, sorting, storing, updating, and revamping.  The good news is that I got it done (well, the kitchen counter not so much, and I never ended up touching the office where my h/school prep papers lie in great abundance...but whatever...).  The bad news is that I felt a little overwhelmed by a combination of project completion, Matthew being sick (and he's not an 'easy' sick person) and my attempts to continue to school and otherwise occupy the kids.  The kids would happily tell you that they were allowed to watch considerably more tv than usual in the last half of last week...thank goodness for that babysitting opportunity!  :)  On Saturday morning, Geoff took the kids out for a leisurely breakfast so that I could vacuum and wash floors before our guests came over.

The other good news is that having the fam over for dinner was great.  We decided against the usual fare of ham or turkey, given various food intolerances and preferences, and went with a meal of salmon (it was delish, quickly pan fried in butter and herbs and himalayan pink salt, and then baked in the oven), sprouted brown rice, and a big pan of roasted veggies (tossed with a bit of grape seed oil, sea salt and herb de provence - my fav!).  By the time the afternoon of our dinner party arrived, I actually had spare time on my hands and so I also baked some dinner rolls to go with dinner.  My sister's desserts rounded out a great meal and the conversation around the table went well with all of it.  It was a good evening.

Easter Day involved church, lunch out, a chocolate egg hunt, and a collapsing onto the couch when it was all over.  I love, love, love Easter time and all that it represents for our family from a salvation perspective.  But I'm also glad when everything's done!

I'll post a few pictures shortly.

It's good to be back!