Spring Turns A Corner

Hello from my bed, which seems like the only reasonable place to be after a day of parent-teacher conferences. They weren't even that painful, frankly, and I only had ten, but there's something a little exhausting about wearing dress shoes on a weekend. 

So I've got a half hour until we leave for a very fun-sounding dinner outing, and I have my lesson plan for tomorrow laid out (which means Monday is taken care of too!), and I am feeling like I need to be productive so a blog post seemed like the right move. Is it actually productive? I leave that question up to you, dear readers.

Since last we spoke, life in the desert has been generally quite pleasant. I chose the season-related title because it really does feel like things have turned a corner in a few ways: May is fast approaching, for one, and the weather has decided we've had quite enough pleasant coolth and it's time to bring the heat. Grown-Up Clothes are so helpful in cold weather that I'd frankly forgotten how freaking hot they are when it's warm out. May's gonna be a sweaty one for all of us.

But anyway. The Glee Club concert went so well! The kids were super engaged and very confident, which is a big improvement from our last little performance, and I'm really proud of what we pulled off, especially considering the extreme brevity of our rehearsal time. Here's a little teaser that Meredith snapped from the audience:

More to come from the communications department, I hope!

And this weekend has been a lovely one. Pick-up softball yesterday, which drew a fairly impressive faculty-student showing (enough for two solid teams, at least) and was INSANELY fun. For much of the time, I played first base, which is a little terrifying when the other team keeps hitting it to the shortstop who actually played baseball and whose every put-out throw reminded me of that time Peter Smith knocked my glasses off in 8th grade. But I held my own, at least most of the time, and more than anything else it was a great sunny afternoon. We may even do it again next week!

And beyond that? Hamantaschen baking with Yasmine, only about six weeks late for the relevant holiday. Our first batch left a little to be desired from an aesthetic standpoint:

But thanks to some architectural mastery, round 2 was significantly more successful:

That's raspberry, apricot, chocolate chip, and a homemade prune compote thingy that only Yasmine and I will eat because everyone else is scared of prunes. More for us!

It's amazing how much they taste like the holiday; I think it's the lemon zest. Really no clue how I'm gonna live a fulfilling culinary life without Yasmine next year, but perhaps it will be time for me to leave the nest and go it alone. Cooking with company is a hell of a lot more fun though.

Hope you enjoyed reading my stream of consciousness, folks! I suppose I do feel somewhat more productive, and I'm confident enough that the week to come will be a fulfilling one for my young philosophers.

In closing, I have a secret to tell that I will reveal later this week. It has to do with the Glee Club, and it's secret enough that even they don't know what they're doing yet, but I am super excited and it's definitely adding a little spice to the next few days. Stay tuned...