The kids had a great concert last night. Unfortunately, the little camera couldn’t capture the action. I have one decent pic, of our trombone-player. Here it is!

I wish the other pics had turned out. M had to play one piece from memory. He had two solos and he really boogied. G played beautifully —

And their teacher/band director, Mrs. S. — I can’t say enough wonderful things about her. She manages to take the kids and find music that not only is within their ability and fun to play — it is fun to listen to as well. And the choreography as well — these kids are getting an experience that few public schools provide but that sets the kids up for success in many areas for the rest of their lives.

Here’s a pic from a proud mama. Our younger child received his second “quality work award” from a teacher this past week, here he is standing next to some classmates being recognized before the whole school. Attending ceremonies like this takes time, but it is worth it for the kids to see that we support them!

Well, we are beginning to do spring cleaning. It’s late this year because we were battling viruses so much the last two months.

But we are on our way now! I have de-cobwebbed as many places as I can reach with the dust mop, we have replaced vent filters throughout the house, I am gradually getting windows washed inside and out. And today I was finally able to spend a couple hours in the garden, pruning, weeding and planning.

Here is a really neat site I discovered for divvying up chores among family members. Have only just begun to use it, but so far it’s a good way to help keep track of all the things that need doing.

Chore Buster

The website uses a database to store people and how much their workload is supposed to be (for example a housewife might shoulder more of the tasks than a full-time student or wage-earner), assigns difficulty levels to each task (so no person is saddled with ALL the hard tasks or only easy tasks), and provides a way to space each chore differently since some things must be done daily and others are once-a-year duties. You can print out the schedule, and it is saved and viewable online. It is easy to use (a bit tedious to set up if you have a list like I do), includes a whole bunch of pre-set chores you can use also, and upgrades are being made to increase user options.

I think this website is worth a good look.