Saturday at the High

Pipster reminded us that Saturday was the First Saturday and practically begged us to go to the museum since it was free. It would be nice if the children begged us to take them to Mass for First Saturdays, but I'm happy that my 10 year-old wild man wanted to go to a museum.

A little Monet made my day!

They have a new Louvre exhibit with some very interesting pieces. It was not as exciting as the one we went to in September. Sadly, we missed the last exhibit because it was only here for six months.

St. Sebastian---the arrow holes, which you can't see here, look like they were made with pencils.

Anyway, we spent a little more time in the main section and hit some floors that we missed last time because everyone was falling apart from hunger. What is it about culture that makes everyone so darn hungry all the time? We had the same problem this Saturday.

Giovanni Bellini---Madonna and Child

Veiled Rebekah---amazing work with marble!

Hugues Merle---Maternal Love

Renoir---Still Life with Apples (no kidding)

Sorry, didn't get the title of this one!

Let me tell you, few things make me miss my mom more than going to an art museum. She used be in ecstasies over some things. I feel the same way, myself, although I don't have the luxury of lingering over pieces, yet.

Then there is this little house outside that I had never paid much attention to. Until we walked past it yesterday and the children were talking about the different angles. I thought it was flat until I walked passed it.




And it followed me. It looked like it was on a turntable. I took a video, but you can't see it very well in the video. If you walk far enough, you can see that it's not flat and it's not actually turning. It's kind of cool.



Thanks for joining us on this little tour! Have a great Monday!

Rest in Peace, Gloria

We had, as the Pipster put it, our First Fish Flush today. Gloria, our first and only Betta fish, died yesterday.

I knew she was a goner all week. We changed her water and suddenly she wasn't eating. First, I found her lying on the bottom of the tank next to this little hill. I never knew fish could lie down!

Then she seemed to spend most, if not all, of her time perched between the leaves of her beloved plastic plant. When I fed her, she tried to go eat, but she was swimming sort of lopsided. Then she'd head back to her perch.

More and more lopsided swimming, then none. Just perching. (No pun intended)

Last night she was belly-up on the bottom of the tank, so we had a little funeral today.

The Little Princess cried. Everyone else thought it was kind of cool.

7 Quick Takes Friday

~~~1~~~

Co-op drama is over! The two plays last night were adorable. The kids did a good job (especially my TMax). It's a huge challenge to put together a drama production (or 3) that allows all the children time onstage. It's complicated by the fact that we don't have school, and therefore, rehearsals, every day. They only get to rehearse once a week for 8 weeks. Then it is showtime.

Another complication is that we have several actors for each roll. This time there were as many as 4! Usually we have the children bring in their own costumes and make them as similar as possible, but this year we thought it was important to have them share costumes so that the audience could keep track of the characters and not spend the time during the scene trying to figure out who they were! That's why I and my helper ended up sewing half a dozen tunics for The Road to Emmaus and 8 skirts for The Smallest of All. Plus there were shawls to be provided, neckerchiefs, collar & sash for the priest, a jacket for the policeman Jacomet.

I'm glad that's over!

~~~2~~~

A couple of pictures. I didn't take many, but that won't be a surprise to some of you. OTOH, I did play around with the settings on my camera and FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER was able to get decent pictures from a seat in the audience!









~~~3~~~

We've been out to our garden for the past few days to water. It's pretty neat, although I'm not sure my little seedlings will survive. We started with seeds indoors, and what looked great at home, now looks pretty pathetic in the bed. They did look better yesterday than the day before, so I have hope, but some things need to be replaced and I still have room to plant more, so we are going out today to buy seedlings!



There are some pretty nice looking gardens here. Serious experts. Some novices, like myself, and a lot of people in the middle. These are a few shots to show you the layout and what a couple of people have done with theirs. The one with the pretty bean-pole set-up is interesting. They have "planted" terra cotta pots next to their seedlings. The pots are filled with water and the saucer is placed on top as a lid and it continuously keeps the roots damp as the water seeps out of the pot. Very interesting trick that I've never heard of, and unless they're always there right before I am, the dirt in their garden is always damp.



The other amazing one is a serious tomato and bean growing contraption, I guess. They even have a soaker hose set up. (There's a hose and spigot there for everyone to use which is very handy. No lugging watering cans back and forth.) There are also quite a few people who have marked off their beds with string for square-foot gardening.






In case you're wondering, there's not a closeup of my garden because there's really not much to see. The seedlings are so much smaller than the ones that others bought from the nursery. I hope I'll have more to show later in the season!

~~~4~~~

I have a lot of reading to do this week(end). I'm finishing up The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey that I heard about from Melissa. I also snagged all the books in the library that were written by her. If you know me, you know I'm a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. KT and I read a few of the books about Rose growing up, but we never delved into the "prequels" about Laura's mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Now the stupid publisher has decided to dumb down all the books and it's hard to find originals. So, I got all they had at my library that Melissa Wiley wrote. I'll probably have to order a few that my branch didn't have.

~~~5~~~

My 7 Quick Takes have been anything but quick the last couple of weeks. I guess because I'm putting a whole week's worth of posts into it. I'm hoping that blogging will happen more frequently now that the sewing marathon has ended!

~~~6~~~

In case you didn't hear the news on FB---we have another Georgia Bulldog in the family! Hitch has made his decision finally. We're happy; KT is thrilled that he'll be joining her; and we hope he'll be happy, too.



Go Dawgs!

~~~7~~~

I think I need a new project to work on. Lol! I'm going to piece the back of the Little Princess's quilt before I put the sewing machine back downstairs, and then I can start putting it together. I'm not happy that she said she wants to change the color of her room now! I told her it can wait until the quilt is finished and then we can think about it. What that means is that it can wait a couple more years because whatever she chooses is what she'll have to live with until she moves out!

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Have a great weekend, everyone! Go visit Jen's for more Quick Takes.