Missy's blog: March 2024

Yoshi and Erena joined Kathryn for a shorter visit than usual. Erena is now of an age when long trips from school are frowned up and poor Yoshi ended up getting a traveling work assignment right after his plans to come here so he really only stopped by for a weekend before flying off to Germany. Talk about jet lag!

The kids were a little nervous about how they would get along with out the time it usually takes them to get used to each other and for Erena to get on our timeline.

Megan said she had a plan and boy did it work.

They were messing around and hanging out from minute 1.

They brought us delicious Japanese snacks. This one was particularly good.

Our Friend Ashish came over and we hung out for a bit.

David and Ashish have known each other since first grade and Kathryn and I met him in HS. Here is a picture of us going to our Prom equivalent.

He is great and we are always so happy to see him.

In an effort to give Yoshi at lease a little vacation in his trip I took them the morning after they arrived to the Smithsonian to look at the dinosaurs and gems at the Natural History museum.

Megan and Erena had very specific hand shape things going on.

The museum was a big hit and we even got good parking.

I am always a little reluctant to leave the house but it was definitely worth it.

We are so lucky to have such great museums around us. Also we are so lucky they are free!

We got a good bit of rain in March and I cherished the return of green.

Around here there is a Cherry Blossom festival each year on the National Mall. This year we wound up downtown for it due to our museum outing. I asked Yoshi and Erena if they knew that our Cherry trees were a gift from Japan and that everyone talks about it each year.

I was really surprised to learn that they do indeed know it. Erena says they study it in school.

That was cool.

Erena had a list of things she wanted to do while here.

One was bowling. Happily Mount Airy has a duckpin alley.

One was fashion. I let the girls do whatever they wanted to my hair in hopes this would quality.

One was ice skating.

Then it was time for them to leave.

I remember when they were babies. Now they are sleepy teenagers. Its wonderful to see them grow up together.

2013 vs 2024

I dropped Kathryn and Erena off at the airport and started thinking seriously about how to get my kids to Japan so that they can see the other side of all this.

I'm working on a weird garden project his year and its going to involve a good number of trees.

To that end i ordered 6 Mountain Ash starters. They arrived just after the Mori crew left.

They seemed quite healthy and I have hopes.

I'm surrounding the house with trees of Celtic and English folklore. We already have lots of Oaks and now we have the Holly in the back as long as we can keep the deer off it.

Next should be willow I think.

I am also going to plant fairy flowers. Next for those will be primrose.

We had a successful Pi day in which David surprised me with this fantastic home made wonder.

I made quiche.

Our March hike was a Wolf Rock rock loop. It was way over the 3 miles I wanted to hit and I was regretting that at the end but I have always wanted to hit Chimney Rock and never managed it for one reason or another.

The weather was great and David came with me so that too was great.

Up at Wolf Rock (above) we ran across a very loud sweary young man who was half boasting half whining to his companions. He kept exclaiming that as a 23 year old he was too young to hurt himself but that his foot hurt.

When we got down we heard that a 23 year old male had to be airlifted off of Chimney rock

There weren't a ton of people up there and we feel like it was very likely that same guy.

There is a big drop off the side of chimney rock and I wonder if her tried it.

We went to the movies and March and watched most of Dune 2. Meg got a headache from so I took her home about 2/3rds of the way through.

They had a special Dune drink which David tried.

I kept working on my piano and started to put a few things I am learning onto my music channel.

I made progress on my Duolingo.

Megan made progress on her drawing.

Look at these great hands!

Flowers continued to bloom.

David continued to be able to do anything. This time he fixed my desk.

We missed Saint Patricks Day food so I made soda bread.

Plus some hearty stuff that really worked out like this mushroom and goat cheese strudel.

We started thinking serious garden thoughts.

I decided not to do seeds this year and instead try direct planting. I learned from my Grandma to not put anything out until mothers day so the March greenhouse looked pretty measly.