Spring here we come

I am so amazed every year at the beauty of nature when the first signs of Spring appear. This year we had a lot of rain so now we have lots of lush green hills, and wild flowers. Our almond tree bloomed a couple of weeks ago and its so pretty when it is covered with its pinkish-white flowers. The flowers are already gone which is a bummer but I enjoyed it while it lasted. I can't believe Easter is almost here. It seems like we were just gearing up for Christmas. Time is just flying by.

I haven't blogged as much lately so I think I will catch you up on what we've been doing. We have been on two field trips recently with the home school group. The first was a few weeks ago to the Lincoln Shrine in Redlands. It is located behind the Smiley Library if you are familiar with the area. I was extremely impressed with the Lincoln shrine. It is a museum devoted to Lincoln and civil war memorabilia. The docent that gave us the tour was very well informed and we learned quite a bit about Lincoln. I had no idea this place existed but I was so impressed with it, I ended up taking my mom there this past weekend to see it. It is free to get in but they do have a container out for donations. I lived on the east coast for 5 years and have visited the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and several actual Civil War forts, and plantations that endured the civil war and this really is the best collection of Civil War memorabilia I have seen on the west coast and rivaled some of the places I visited on the east coast so check it out when you need something to do that doesn't cost much. I also highly recommend visiting the Smiley Library since the two places share a lawn. The Smiley library is really beautiful. It is a historical building and Elijah said it looked like the Harry Potter school inside.

Yesterday we went on another field trip this time to the old school house/museum in Oak Glen. It is an old style one room school. Think Little House on the Prairie if you've never been there. I have been there many times as a child as we frequently had field trips there but it was nice seeing Elijah in there. The teacher/docent had all the kids sit at the little desks. The kids sat in age groups the way they would have back in the day. She showed them the little slates the kids used to show their answers to questions. The school house had lots of interesting gadgets such as a phonograph which still works, a stereoscope which also still works, and an old phone among other things. At the end the older kids got to write their names using an old inkwell and got a calligraphy lesson. The younger kids got to make candles out of beeswax. Then the kids all got to go outside and play on the playground and in the snow. There wasn't a ton of snow but enough to make snow balls and to build a snow man. Not enough for sledding. Elijah got lots of running around time and had a lot of fun. Our next field trip isn't until April 30th and it is to the Fender Guitar Museum in Corona. It will be about music appreciation. I think that will be loads of fun, and the kids will get to handle various instruments and have little lessons as well as tour the museum.

Our resurrection party with the home school group is this Thursday. The kids will get to recite a bible verse for a prize. I need to get out today to get the prizes. We will also have our usual potluck, and the kids will probably play games like Red Rover. I was going to try to organize a hunt with Resurrection eggs which tell the story of Christ but some people in the group don't like using Easter eggs at all as they were originally a pagan tradition so that's out. That's ok, we will still have a good time.

We finally got our car back this past Friday. That was an ordeal. The repair people actually tried to say it was all fixed the week before that, but when Doug picked it up it was sputtering and shaking when it drove, and the check engine light was on. The repair people at the auto collision place said that Doug must have done something to it after he picked it up which was ridiculous, and the insurance company tried to give us a hard time saying that the Toyota mechanics will look at it and if they decide the problem was accident related then they will pay for it to be fixed but if not then we would have to pay for the diagnostic, and towing, and the repairs. Thankfully the Toyota mechanics did their job well and figured out that it was accident related and it all got fixed. So I am happy that is over with and I have a car to drive again. Yay!

Well that's basically whats new with us. I hope everyone is well!