Recitals and such

J15 had her violin recital this afternoon. She is glad to finally have it over. My parents drove up to hear her play. J15 played second to last of a group of 17 students. The children ranged in age from a little boy probably 5 or 6 to J15 and one of her friends who were, I think, the oldest. It is kind of fun to have the mix of beginners and more experienced students.

Waiting before the recital.

Isn't she pretty? Of course, I may be just a bit prejudiced about that. Her violin is a family heirloom on V's side of the family. It was her great, great grandfather's, built in the early 1800s and was supposedly, one of the first in the state of Minnesota long ago. I did shoot video of her performance that I may try to post later. It's too long for blogger to accept and I don't feel like editing it tonight.

I12 baked the cookies that we took for the reception after the recital. He is doing a cooking unit in school and has to prepare three different dishes. Each recipe has to have at least 3 ingredients that need measured and he has to write out the recipe and detail what he did and what he had help with. I was thinking about this assignment, thinking that it wasn't really that difficult but then I thought about all those people out there who don't cook. (oh, and butter doesn't count as a measured ingredient- probably because you just cut it off the stick) Most box mixes don't have 3 or more measured ingredients. He's had the assignment for only a week and is already finished with it and it isn't due until mid February. But then, he likes to cook.

We did hear back from our realtor this morning. We had asked the prospective buyers to change the closing date back to the one they had originally proposed but with the new, agreed upon price. They decided to walk out and keep looking. I'm not sure what was on their agenda but now we are once again without buyers for the house. But, really, I'm not that worried about it. There was something too fishy about this offer that made me a bit uncomfortable. Like I said in a previous post, a new add hit the newspaper yesterday and the house hunting 'season' here is just beginning.

It is raining here today- and almost 40 degrees!!! Of course, with as much snow and ice as we have on the ground, it is a slippery mess out there. I still need to finalize my seed order. I don't think I'm even going to be ordering any veggies- I've already got plenty of seeds but I do need to order my herbs. And the cherry tree that we want- and a couple more blueberries.

I did run across a bit in the paper about a series of programs called "Seeds of Sustainability" sponsored by Backyard Abundance, a local organization. I have seen information on their organization for a while but have never been able to attend any of the events they have sponsored because of conflicts. But I think I'm going to try to go to some of them this year. They are planning a two day workshop in March about permaculture landscaping. It costs $110 but may be worth it. I'm going to try to go to the event next Saturday. It's called 'Find Abundance in Growing Food'. I'm not new to growing my own food but I'd really like to meet some of the people in this organization. I've been feeling the need for more local involvement and this could be the way to go. They are also going to be sponsoring a seed swap on March 6 that could be fun. That is K9's birthday but hopefully I can sneak away for an hour to do a swap or two.