And it's snowing again

For the 3rd Sunday in a row.  I've been told there's a saying about rain on Easter...

Since my freezer is full of (excellent) Wyss beef, I attempted a brisket for Passover.  It's apparently fairly common for Seder meals, and I love brisket.  I used a recipe that included a mushroom sauce, and since the mushrooms were visible, certain of my children were leery (aka convinced I was trying to poison them).  *sigh* Oh well, more for me, and it was really good! They did eat more than their fair share of deviled eggs and watermelon and drank all of the sparkling grape juice.     

 The big girls dyed a few eggs while Cadence was sleeping on Friday.  We spent the evening at Good Friday services.  

 Sooooo.... I have been squirreling away money from teaching, etc., to replace this book shelf.  I really wanted an antique barrister bookcase and last Saturday I went antiquing.  All the way up north to Chilli.   

 It was kind of more of an adventure than I planned....I found one that I really liked, got it loaded up fine in the van (It comes apart- each shelf is its own section), and was driving home really carefully.  It was super windy, of course, and a big sheet of black plastic blew under the van and got stuck and I could hear it flapping around and there was no where to stop.  Until I got to a slightly sketchy gas station.  It fell off then, but there was some plastic melted to the exhaust pipe.  Woot.  I made it home without further incident.
Out with the new, in with the old!   

 They were pretty excited about their Easter baskets on Sunday morning.

 Chocolate bunny!

 After church we celebrated Bob's birthday!  Lucky guy, Easter, April Fool's day, birthday all rolled in to one this year!  Ha.  Or not.  He doesn't seem to mind as much as I would... 

 The night before the girls decided he needed a "Link and Zelda castle cake!" and I was not planning on anything elaborate at all..... so I stuck some pictures on the cake and they were almost satisfied. 

 We went to Fred and Dianne's in the evening for Easter with the Wysses.  The girls had fun playing in the basement, and then of course Cadence found a phone.

 Let there be light!  We had Rob come out and put a new overhead light in the living room.  I just don't understand why you wouldn't want overhead light.  You can always not turn it on and just use lamps, but when you're reading or trying to sew (like at sewing club) I need light! Lots of light!  Maybe it's just because I have bad eyes.  Anyway, we now have light.  Also, my new old bookcase has a lingering stain/varnish smell that bugs Bob and it's full of deodorizing things like vinegar and baking soda and kitty litter.  Since it's not warm or sunny out to take it outside.

 Tuesday evening Bob's mom came to watch the girls while we went to Champaign for Ned's doctoral lecture/recital.  It was so fun.  And really good to be on campus again, despite the cold and wind.  Mom and Dad rode down with Fred, Di, Tate and his friend Nolan (Also a former student of mine. ha.). Dad gave them a quick tour of the quad and of course the Morrow Plots. Because you can't throw shade on the corn, and you can't visit the U of I with my dad and not stop and pay homage to the oldest experimental cornfield.    
Ned's thesis is on Beethoven's violin concerto and he spent about half an hour talking about the different revisions that had been done to the violin solo part.  It was pretty interesting.

 Then he played it for us and it was amazing.  It was 40-45 minutes long and he had it all memorized of course.  Afterward there was cake and I had to get a picture with the future Dr. Ned.  (He defended his thesis a few days later.)

 It was late, but since the recital started at 5:30 and we hadn't eaten supper yet, Bob and I went to Black Dog Smoke and Ale House with Mom and Dad, Matt, Ned, Fred and Di, Tate, and Nolan.  I decided to be like the young kids and take a picture of my food.... brisket sandwich and corn bread with bacon in it- so good!

 We got home pretty late and the girls were all asleep.  Apparently they were not very happy that we weren't home to put them in bed the right way.  I heard all about it in the morning.  Hehe.
Emmy is in story hour again.  Cadence is still not a big fan of sitting quietly in the library, playing with the toys, or looking at the kids books.  She'd rather grab the display penguin and wrap it up in her blanket and carry it all over the library.  

 At one point she was curled up with it on the floor watching videos of herself on my phone.  Silly kid.

 It's been cold, windy, and not very conducive to going outside.  One afternoon they were feeling cooped up so I got out a magnet craft kit.  Painting and decorating actually kept them occupied and not fighting for a while!  

Blessings.