Monday miscellany

TJ and Keri and the kids came down Saturday,

and we were finally able to give them their quilt!

I think they liked it alright. :-)

They stayed pretty much all day

from noon on,

so that was fun :-)

Mommas love it when their kids come home.

Speaking of kids coming home,

Tony and Kacy 

and Hadley

will be coming for Brandon's graduation!!

(which will be April 30th, if you're wondering)

The kids had TKD testing in the morning.

Lily is now a brown/black belt (!)

and Lexi is brown.

None of the boys passed their midterms,

which was sad.

But I was so proud of them all anyways!

They did their best,

and showed excellent character.

Our good buddy JohnMark

earned his black belt, though.

Bless his heart, he had to follow all these other black belts

(3 others, besides our 3)

who didn't get their board breaks

(and he wasn't terribly confident to begin with)

but he busted those boards on his first try!

Oh, did we whoop and holler!

I think my 'audio' messed up the video Eva took.

Oops.

I can't help it;

I am an enthusiastic cheer-er

Friday afternoon,

Brandon got notified that he has an interview Thursday

for an engineering scholarship.

Which is exciting and nerve-wracking!

We had talked a week or so ago 

about going ahead and buying him a suit

so we'd have plenty of time to get it tailored

and get it back

before the interviews started.

Obviously that didn't happen : /

We went shopping that evening,

and amazingly,

we found a suit that fits him really well!

I *could* take the pants in a smidge in the waist,

but it'd only be about a half inch,

so that hardly seems worth the trouble.

The only thing we didn't end up buying is socks.

(He'd like some with a bit of orange in 'em)

Which isn't a biggie.

He can wear a pair of Tyler's if I don't find a pair.

It made sense to get the tie first,

and that didn't happen 'til after 10.

He's going to look so snazzy :-)

The twelve day quilt is coming right along!

I finished the machine quilting yesterday afternoon,

and the hand-quilting last night.

I trimmed it this morning 

and made and attached the binding.

Then I spent some time researching.

The consensus seems to be

that a machine sewn down binding is more durable

than a hand-sewn one.

Being that this is a baby quilt that will 

(hopefully)

see lots of use,

and therefore,

lots of washings,

I want it as durable as possible.

Here's what I wonder though - 

is it really more durable?

Or do the people who say that it is

just prefer the speed of a machine sewed binding?

I sewed it down by machine,

just in case.

But I don't like how it looks

so I'm ripping it out

and sewing the binding down by hand anyways.

I'll offer repair services... ;-)

Lily was having a little trouble last night,

so I ended up sitting out under the stars with her,

answering, "I don't know." 

to a bunch of sky questions

for about a half hour.

Then we came in and played cards for an hour,

until she felt sufficiently able to go to sleep.

She beat me at Rummy,

but I won Go Fish.

(which just feels a little pathetic, actually)

The weather has been so nice and sunny the past few days :-)

The kids have been kayaking and fishing and riding bikes

and playing in the creek.

In January!

All of my hens are gone.

Sadness.

My rooster walks around so lonely.

He'll probably get eaten, too,  before long though.

Damn coyotes.

and hawks.

and weasels.

I keep reminding myself

-no more chickens-

But just the other day,

someone had posted in our homeschool loop that they had hens for sale

and I saved the e-mail.

I think Brandon and I are going to try out a new (to us) Netflix show tonight.

I should be able to get a good chunk of the binding done.

Just as soon as I get the rest of the machine stitching 

ripped out.