April Showers

If "April showers bring May flowers,"
what follows April snowfall?
Seems I was a little premature in making jokes about snow in Central Washington on April Fools' Day ... turns out it can snow here two weeks later.

I am going to step out on a limb and say the snow that is falling this morning will be the last of this "winter," as predictions after today are warming up with temps in the 70s and sunny for next week and overnight lows out of the 30s. I am just glad we don't live in Spokane -- Kelli's mom sent this photo this morning, where they had 4 inches and still falling at 7 AM today. Not sure if you can see them with this size of photo, but there are colored plastic Easter eggs still hanging in the bush from the weekend.

Makes it tough to think about planting corn ... but that is what is on the agenda around here for Ben for the next several days, he hopes. They are spreading manure on the fields this past week, but we noticed they seem to be getting stuck today -- a little slick out there with the snow layer even if it's thin.

The new (100 hour) Claas Jaguar chopper arrived last week. It has been to a couple ag shows and is all waxed and shiny, and even still smells good inside -- which won't last long! He is looking forward to some good chopping years with this thing.

Earlier this month we had Dayna, Danelle, and Thea staying here for several days. Since Dayna's surgery for a "broken" wrist last month, there are so many things she just cannot use that hand/arm for that she needs help with. Simple things we don't realize are all but impossible to do with only one hand, like using a can opener, tying one's own shoes, and (the biggie) changing a diaper... Shane is doing great on the weekends but he has to go to work on weekdays, so I spent a few days over there after the surgery, then Amy stayed there for a while, then they came here, and when they left Shane's mom Renae went home with them. I will go back over there for 4 days next week. There was mention of "three months of full-time help needed" after the surgery, so we'll see how it all pans out with our shift-work plan. And so we got to have some good times while they were staying here -- fortunately the weather wasn't half bad. Thea really enjoys the dogs (she "arfs" at them) and both girls love the trampoline bouncing.

Thea doesn't really giggle that often, but the trampoline just makes her laugh outloud! We are trying not to give Thea shaken-baby syndrome by having her just flop around on it while Danelle bounces.
Nicholas preferred wandering around the farm trying to see the pigs... sorry about the quality of this one, but he was so cute and little looking on his way back that I just had to try to get it documented.



We had a quiet Easter after a busy Holy Week -- Lou lead three services and there were bulletins to print, etc. After church on Sunday we ate a Brunch here with Kelli, Ben, Nicholas, and Louis. I think this was the first year ever that I didn't dye eggs... but I stuffed candy into some for the kids at church to hunt for after the service on Sunday. Even after he had practiced finding eggs at home, once they got outside and Nicholas saw the play structure, he dropped his basket and ran to play on that, even with the cool temps and the wind blowing. He loves it outside and is ready for SPRING. Me too.