Retirement Party

Last Saturday we celebrated Oma's retirement from 34 years of teaching with a family party.  Oma is technically still teaching.  She goes to school for one Latin class everyday.  She loves not having to wake up early in the morning to get ready for school and instead does yard work.  She loves not having the stress of tons of grading.  She is enjoying the semi-retired life.  

We already had some small celebrations at the end of the school year in June, but waited until now to have the family party because my brother and his wife are visiting from Japan.  Although the focus of the party was her retirement, it also happened to fall on her birthday and there were other family birthdays around that time.  So we gave a nod to all the September birthdays with some singing and a cake at the end of the day.

To celebrate her retirement, at her special request, we hired a photographer to capture our family.  It was hard to do with the five kids.  There were times where one or more of them were not cooperating.  But I think we ended up with some really good shots of everyone.  We haven't seen them yet.  The photos here were taken by my father-in-law.  Some of his turned out beautifully as well.

 

I love the one of the five grandchildren.  I really hope that our photographer was able to get a good one with all them looking without funny faces. 

 

The rest of the day we spent eating, swimming, and spending time with one another.  The day went by quickly.  The kids cooperated with the strange nap time and place.  We had fun as a family, celebrating Oma. 

 

 

Gardening

 

We have a very sad, pathetic garden at my mother's house.  My brother, the girls and I take care of it.  My brother is busy with work and other engagements elsewhere most of the time.  Although he had an awesome, abundant garden two years ago, he just doesn't have time for it these days.  

The girls and I are always here, but we don't get a lot done.  Most of the time the girls aren't interested in checking on it every evening.  When we do go down to check on it, I am always holding Baby M, which limits what I can do.  I often spend some time admonishing the girls not to step on the plants, or directing them were to plant new seeds.  Sometimes the girls will dig up a weed or two.  Most of the time though, we wait for the automatic sprinklers to come on so the girls can get wet.  That is what gardening is with two 3 year olds and an 8 month old. 

The yellow squash is doing pretty well now that the critters have started to leave them alone.  No fruit is growing yet though, just flowers for now.

The tomato plants, which were looking beautiful for awhile there, were attacked by tomato bugs (tomato hornworms) while the girls and I were out of town.  The picture below is of the aftermath where I found 7 fatty ones chomping away.  For next year's garden, I need to plant marigolds or dill with the tomatoes and get some wasps according to the farmer's almanac. 

 

Currently, there are only two things growing that we can actually eat.  One pepper plant has a single pepper on it, although the plant itself has been devoured by something (a rabbit possibly or pack rat).  I also stuck a leek cutting from the kitchen into the ground a week or two ago and it is doing beautifully.  I did the same with a celery cutting and hope it will also be a success.

 

Although not much is happening in the garden, I am still glad that we have it.  It is a good activity for the girls to learn about where food comes from and for them to get dirty.  Hopefully as they all grow older, we will be able to have a large and productive garden together.