Five good things

I'm sharing five good things from this past week. I missed last week because my sister and I made dinner for our ladies' Bible Study on Friday, a big project but a lot of fun. We made a beloved meal from college days, Thai peanut chicken wraps. And Caesar salad, which I fondly remember Melissa asking for every year on her birthday when we were kids.

I keep thinking of this quote from Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book by Cynthia Rylant:

> Mrs. Teaberry told him not to worry. She said the world is full of mystery writers. But writers of good things are few and far between.

Which leads me to the first thing on my list:

1. Cynthia Rylant books. The other night Christopher was reading a Mr. Putter and Tabby book to the boys while I was nursing the baby. I started reading the Wikipedia article on Cynthia Rylant. This started me on a bit of a Cynthia Rylant kick, though admittedly I have been obsessed with Mr. Putter and Tabby since becoming a parent. My mom gave us a whole collection of them.

Mr. Putter is an old man who lives with his fine cat, Tabby. He enjoys long walks and good food. He's an awful lot like most of us?

Anyway, although Cynthia Rylant stopped writing Mr. Putter and Tabby books eight years ago, stopping at twenty-five, she has authored over 100 books and when we went to the library yesterday I checked out 5 or 6 Cynthia Rylant books I hadn't read before. I am looking forward to reading those. Julian and I sat on the couch this morning and read two of the picture books, Night in the Country and Let's Go Home. Very sweet.

Last year I read Missing May as a part of my quest to read all the Newbery Medal books. I enjoyed that one.

2. We finished up the school year. Silas is officially done with first grade and Micah is done with kindergarten.

On Wednesday we went into the office and met with our contact teacher to wrap things up. We submitted our work samples and progress reports and re-enrolled for next year.

I feel like we got a strong start to the school year in the seven weeks before Eric was born and that helped a lot. After that, we were just muddling along as best as we could and I wasn't able to do everything I wanted to do with them. I didn't feel very satisfied with the school year. Still, they did well in finishing up math and language arts, and we did a decent amount of swimming, reading, and playing outside. I think we did the best we could with a brand new baby.

It feels great to have our summer break ahead of us. May is usually such a beautiful month in Fairbanks, you can hardly bear to be indoors, so I was hoping all along to be done by May.

3. I saw the first robin of spring. I've been using the whoBIRD app from F-Droid to identify bird songs and I was happy on Monday when it identified an American Robin. I didn't see the robin till the next day, April 30. There it was, up in our bare brown birch tree, singing its cheerful song. It was a magical moment.

About whoBIRD -- the boys and I tried to fool it by making pretend bird calls, but it correctly identified these as "human sounds". Eric, however, was a trumpeter swan.

4. On Thursday Silas came running out his room to tell me that Julian made up a song called "Butter Up Your Baby" and was singing it. We have no idea what "Butter up your baby" means. It's kind of fun to say. Julian makes up a lot of little songs and I love it. Sadly, I haven't been able to convince him to sing Butter Up Your Baby again so I could hear.

5. The hole in our ceiling got fixed. Last year there was a leak in the bathroom of the apartment upstairs. In December our landlord had the plumbers come and fix the leak, which was great, but they left a big hole in the ceiling of our bedroom. This week the handyman came and patched the drywall where the plumbers left the hole, and he also repaired the spot where the water leak caused damage. Even with new paint you can still see where the ceiling was patched but it's a huge improvement over having a big hole in the ceiling and being able to hear the patter of water in the shower upstairs. I am very pleased.

While the apartment handyman was there, it came to his attention that nearly all of the window cranks were worn out. He said he will replace them next week. Being able to shut the windows without going outside and pushing the window closed? Luxury! I wasn't expecting that.

The kids are starting off their summer vacation this week by being sick and I am starting off by having a toothache. Still, there is a lot to thank God for.