Texas 'Bonnets

About 10 minutes from our house there is a lovely field of Texas finest spring flowers--the Bluebonnet. On Sunday afternoon Muffin and I took a drive over there and found about twenty other cars stopped by the side of the road, people all spilled out with children, wee toddlers, and puppy dogs.  And LOTS of cameras.  In one corner of the field is an old tractor--the perfect prop for kids photos. Another area had a tiny picnic table, barely taller than the resplendent bluebonnets themselves. Toddlers and puppies looked very cute indeed on that table.  It was a beautiful day for photos. 

Muffin and Marmee

Close up.                                                 Closer.

Watching the other families.

We offered to take their photos so they could all get in the view finder.

Beautiful lake of blue. 

So pretty we even took photos of each other taking photos.  Cheesy, but fun. 

Thank you Lord, for your wondrous works that proclaim your glory!

Grandpa Muffin

Growing up I thought it was totally normal for my parents to do most of the same work. Oh, Daddy had a job as a barber, and Mother did the laundry and bulk of the cooking and running errands, but neither of them thought twice about Daddy cooking or sewing on buttons or Mother working in the yard or doing the banking. It was "even steven" in most areas. My paternal grandmother, the progressive pioneer woman I called "Pickle" taught her four children, two boys and two girls, to all work the same, inside and outside the house.

So, when I started dating I really thought it was pretty weird when guys frowned on their Dad's doing "housework", or worse still, when said guys wouldn't help out around the house themselves. Naturally when I met Muffin and his family and his Daddy, Papaw to our girls, helped Nana around the house and did some cooking, all seemed normal to me. Muffin learned to cook both at home and in scouts and has always, always helped with the girls, in the kitchen, with the cleaning, and anything else that needed help too.

Today while I was co-hostessing a baby shower at our church for a sweet couple adopting twin 14 month old girls from South America, Muffin was unloading the car for me (two car booster seats as hostess gifts, and a half sheet cake), cleaning floors at home, as well as gluing furniture that needed repairs, emptying trash and recycling, among countless other chores and necessities. What guy!!

Here he is in profile on snowy Christmas Eve. Love the Indiana Jones hat.

Looking charming at the end of a long work day on our date night to "South Pacific".

Cheesing for our iphone camera in the church atrium.

He's a keeper. I'd like to keep him home, but his vacation is over tonight. Boo Hoo.

Taxes

It's that blessed day of the year when we are allowed to pay for the privilege of living in the USA. Or maybe you, unlike us, are getting paid back for that privilege. Anyway, Muffin stayed home Monday to complete our complicated returns for the IRS. It's complicated because I play in an orchestra as an independent and nothing is withheld during the year. And because I play in a quartet and contract the other players and pay them as independent musicians. And because I have a music studio in our home which makes the house and all the services connected with it deductions. And because I have to keep records of trips in the car, postage costs, supplies for my instruments, CD's, downloads, sheet music, electronic supports, pencils for tests, tickets to supporting concerts, meals purchased at workshops and conventions, and......lots of other stuff.  

Every year I try to keep better records in a better, more improved system of organization. And every year it seems that it becomes more complicated so that my organization fails to cover all the bases yet again. I have files in the music room, files in the office room, files in the file cabinet, and files on the computer. I have two calendars on the computer with every meeting and every rehearsal and every trip written on them. There is a separate folder in my computer for receipts for music organizations, tickets purchased online, supplies ordered online.  There is a membership folder for all the professional organizations. I have an insurance folder for the instrument insurance. There is an entire e-mail folder for download confirmations, because for every concert I play I download music well in advance so I can listen to it and learn it before even receiving the music to practice. Finally, there is a folder of receipts of real paper from real stores where I purchase supplies, stickers, posters, paper, computer supplies and recital supplies for students. And I order real, honest to goodness CD's as gifts for them too! 

Poor Muffin puts all of this together and makes sense of it every April. So I made this lemon pound cake for him. Good boy, Muffin!

Fireproof Date

Since this is a quiet weekend, no rehearsals or mandatory attendance at functions related to work today, Muffin, who brought me gorgeous pink and coral roses Thursday night, took me to dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant and to a movie. (We expertly ran two errands in between those events, but it was still a date.) The dinner was yummy. He had shrimp and pasta. I had the Sicilian grilled chicken salad. I love the exquisitely fresh greens, tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese, and herbs, not to mention the homemade dressing.

The real treat of the evening is this movie. See it!