Here we go!

This week, I started two things that make me very happy: 1) my garden, and 2) guitar lessons with Erin.

My friends helped me plant a variety of lettuce and spinach seeds indoors on Thursday and the first of the lettuce sprouts popped through the surface just this afternoon. Yay!

Grand Rapids Lettuce wins first place for germination!

Now I've got them under the lights. This week has a couple of BEAUTIFUL days forecast for some outdoor soil work. I will also have to muck out the chicken coop soon *ugh* and fortify my garden beds against bunnies *UGH*. This is my 8th growing season with this backyard garden and I still haven't found a bunny fence I like.

As for guitar lessons, Erin and I are taking them together at the same time from the same teacher. This is way more fun and sustainable than private lessons for me. First, accountability. There's someone else planning on these lessons and practicing for these lessons, and it's a lot harder to skip a lesson or put off practicing when I know Erin will notice ;) Second, fun! We get to ride to and from the lessons together. Third, duets! Our teacher selected a book series that he says is "foolproof" and also happens to have 2-guitar duets every few exercises. There's just something I love about playing duets. They don't even have to be performance-worthy. I love sight reading music with someone else, especially if we're not that awesome at it, because it's just for fun. There's no pretense. And you go through it a few times and then it clicks and woo hoo! Or it fails miserably and you laugh it off and turn the page. Alice is just getting proficient enough at the piano to play this way with me and I LOVE it. Absolutely love it. It pushes all my happiness buttons. To eventually get to do this with Erin on our guitars...squeeeeeeee!

In other news, James lost a tooth! His fourth. He tucked it into an envelope and left it for the tooth fairy (which everyone in this house knows is me...we have never been believers here...when someone loses a tooth I offer them the money right then or they can get it "tooth fairy style" under their pillow). Of course I forgot. After James reminded me of my oversight this morning, I snuck into his room and made the switch. I found this in the envelope:

"Dear tooth fairy, I really want more money."

And he wanted the tooth back, too. Hm.

I climbed all the way up onto his loft bed this morning just to hang out with him for a bit. He pulled out his special black satchel and said, "This is my Murder Kit. You're not allowed to look in here." I could clearly see a foam pirate sword sticking out the side zipper. Them Matthew chimed in, "And don't look in that metal box by my bed. That's my Murder Kit. In case we have to murder someone." James told him to hush or he'd give away too much information. I asked Matthew who they would possibly need to murder. He shrugged and clicked his tongue, "It's just in case."

I was "dying" to know what else they thought they would need in their Murder Kits, but that was the end of the discussion. No, wait. A little later, James pulled out a wad of dollar bills rolled together into a tight tube and secured with a rubber band.

Hush money? Getaway funds?

What does the world look like through James' eyes?

Robert's world is clearly tainted green with black seeds:

Kiwi!