This week I’ve worked hard.

In the mornings and early afternoons, I take care of household chores somewhat, but then I’ve been giving a large chunk of my time to administering the C.A.T. achievement tests for the four oldest scholars in our little home school.

Then, in the late afternoons and evenings, I go over to the Monroe house and work hard until after supper time. Tonight we were able to finally start putting the layers of poly on the last of the floors we’re refinishing. It was such a difficult floor to work on, for some reason, and both Michael and I invested many hours in sanding it.

We have also been working on cleaning and painting the basement, so we got some more of that done tonight.

But the fact is, I couldn’t accomplish this work without the help of my mother-in-law. Not only does she supervise the very curious and busy children in the mornings while I hide away in my room testing my current victim, but Grammy also babysits for long hours while Michael and I are gone working at the Monroe house. We wouldn’t be able to make nearly as much progress if it weren’t for dear Grammy.

All in all, as I sit here, I’m so tired and my muscles and joints ache and tingle. But it’s good to work hard, so I’m not complaining. It’s also nice to fall asleep quickly after a hard day of work.

Good night.

Well, it’s official: we’re moving back home to Monroe Street.  The last of our sale leads fizzled yesterday, so now we can throw all of our energies into getting the Monroe house ready for our family to move back in.

I have to say… I’m excited!  Our house is all fixed up and so beautiful.  And we have a fresh start as we decide which things to move back into the house.  The neighbors are happy to have us back, and we’re happy to see them again, too.

We have been listening to Dave Ramsey’s podcast and using his suggestions to make good progress in paying off our debt.  We hope that in another year or so we’ll be debt free and we can once again pursue our dream of moving to the country, but this time with an even better financial footing.

We feel confident of God’s direction in our lives as we set our faces back to Monroe Street.  It has been a good thing for us to move out of the house, get it all fixed up, and experience life in an upscale neighborhood.  But it is also a good thing for us to go back to our home and once again be a positive influence in that neighborhood.

We are so happy to be going home.

I think I’ve finally realized that Frizz is not coming back.  I keep looking out back, wondering how he’s doing, and listening for his voice.  But we haven’t seen him for many days, so I think that for better or for worse, he’s gone.

Does that mean we have an empty nest now?  And do I have “empty nest syndrome”?

Wanna’ see where we’re going tomorrow morning?

I’ve admired this house from a distance for a while, and am so excited to finally get to see the inside. It’s a real date for Michael and me, although I think a few kids are wanting to tag along. We’ll see if that happens or not.

Tonight was the end-of-the-year piano recital for the girls.  The whole group of students did piano duets, trios or quartets.  It was the most interesting recital I’ve ever heard.

Laura and Amelia worked very hard on the two duets they were to perform.

Tonight they did an excellent job playing together.  I was so proud of them.

One funny thing that Amelia does is that she doesn’t look at the piano while she’s playing.  Oh, sometimes she will, especially if Laura scolds her and reminds her to look at the piano.  But often Amelia looks out at the audience or off into space somewhere.

My friend, Bethany, took many of the photos tonight, and she captured this shot of the girls while they were playing.  I can’t help but wonder what Amelia is looking at.

To answer the question posted in the comments below, yes, that photo is really Frizz the friendly bird. I think it’s funny that my friend Maria called me today to ask the same question. I’ve never been able to get good photos of wild birds before, because they’ve never been interested in posing for me. But Frizz was very cooperative.  Here’s another photo of him, and in this one you can see his leg band that Isaac found and put on him.

Frizz did not come see us today. We watched for him all day. Laura, Isaac and I took turns walking outside and calling for him. Maybe he’ll fly by and say hey tomorrow.

I have two babies in my life.

First, and most important, of course, is my human baby, Lilly. She is almost six months old, and is a daily delight. She is chubby and smiley and cheerful and easy to please. All of us dote on her and no one seems to mind at all that our world revolves around the baby. Even Judah, who was displaced from his little throne by Lilly, thinks she was given to us as a special gift just for him.

What a gift our family was given when Lilly became part of it!

The other “baby” in my life is of a whole different sort. As you probably knew long before I guessed it, Frizz came back to our yard the next morning when Isaac went to check on him. Apparently Frizz stayed exactly where he was put, and simply waited for his confused human parents to come find him. I told Isaac to go ahead and just bring Frizz back to our yard so it was easier to check on him. So for several days Frizz stayed in the yard, being fed and pampered by the children. Then, yesterday morning, he was gone. He wasn’t hollering for his breakfast as usual. So I decided he had flown away (or gotten eaten by something), and that was the end of the story. When we got home from church, another check of the yard confirmed that Frizz was still gone. A few hours later when I laid down for my afternoon nap, I heard a very familiar “voice”, so I hopped out of bed and went out back to see what it was. Sure enough, it was Frizz! He was asking for a bit of a snack, which I delightedly gave to him. He hung around for a little while until our family hurried off to the pool. This morning I haven’t yet seen Frizz. I don’t know if he’ll come back again. Every day is a mystery. But we’ll keep an eye out for him and maybe we’ll see him again. His mushy dog food is waiting for him.