Tonight's Sky

Just a quick post to let you know about the meteor shower tonight, Saturday April 21.  From Sky & Telescope, "The weak but unpredictable Lyrid Meteor Shower should reach maximum activity in the hours before dawn Sunday morning...You might see a dozen Lyrids per hour...before the beginning of dawn."

You know that there are no "falling stars" as stars don't fall.  What looks like falling stars are actually meteors.  Each year there are predictable meteor showers at certain dates.  Cool that we can be informed about them and watch them if we are willing to stay up or get up to do so.

Also from Sky & Telescope, "These spring evenings sport two planet-and-star pairs:  Mars with Regulus to its right high in the south, and Saturn with Spica to its right lower in the southeast.  Both pairs are now 5 degrees wide."

A great time to view these are in the next few evenings as it is now new moon time so either there won't be a visible moon or it will be small and disappear from the night sky leaving it darker so we can see the stars.  Remember that stars twinkle, planets don't.

The planet, Jupiter is now very low in the western horizon right after sunset.  Venus is up higher and is brighter in the west.

Painting

Two weeks ago I started working in the living room.  There were many cracks to fix as well as "mud" the area that had been covered with the trim and base boards.  We will be putting all new wood trim in the living room and dining room as the old trim was beat up and pieced in places.  After it was ready I put a coat of texture paint on the walls.  Then I painted the ceiling and walls.

On Friday Tim installed our new chandelier in the dining room.  It is nice to have light in there especially on these rainy days.

Since I put my other china hut in the kitchen I have more room in the dining room with the piano and Brandon's china hut on one wall.  I haven't put any pictures on the walls yet as the red paint is still a little sticky.

The new sofa is a little longer than the old one so I have rearranged my living room.  The color in here is country white.  I wish I would have done a tan as it is lighter than I thought it would be.  But I'm going to leave it.  With some red curtains and pictures on the walls it should look better.

I am enjoying the view from my chair.

We enjoyed our Sabbath company.  One of my friends brought us these beautiful flowers.  It is so great to be able to have company again!

Our school is starting to wind down for the year.  Leah is almost finished with first grade and has been doing some second grade work.

Daniel will be on week 30 in RtR but is almost done with his math and spelling curriculum for the year.  Either things are getting easier for him, which I think they are, or the work is easier as he is finishing each day's work quickly. 

This past week he had to do writing assignments in English two days.  Usually he is almost in tears and can't write in sequence.  This week he wrote two really good stories.  I was so proud of him.

In astronomy we studied the planet, Jupiter.  Jupiter is another gaseous planet.  If you landed on Jupiter you would fall through as except for the core it is made up of gasses.

In history we studied the explorers, Vespucci and Magellan and learned about the Pre-Aztec civilizations, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Incas.  After reading about their human sacrifice practices and sun god worship Daniel thought it good that their civilizations were wiped out.

In Bible we continue to learn Philippians 2:3-13.  We have been reading from I John and will finish it this week.

Today I am planning on doing some painting in our bedroom.  Last week I fixed the cracks as best I could.  Then I put a coat of texture paint on the ceiling and walls.  I need to paint the trim boards, walls, and ceiling.  I am excited to get these projects done.

So I had best get busy. 

No, It Is Not Snow.

Today we had a storm come through.  It is usual in early April to have a snow storm.  But this was not that type of storm.  Though the day was cloudy all morning I was first alerted to the storm by a big clap of thunder that made me jump. 

We were downstairs doing school when we started to hear some loud sounds of hail hitting the house. I had some windows open and went to shut them.  The hail was coming down so hard I thought it might break the windows.  We had that happen a few years ago when Daniel was a baby.  He was sleeping on the bed that was right underneath a north window.  After the hail started I quickly scooped him up.  A few minutes later the hail broke that window.  This time the hail didn't get as large or break any windows.  But it was plentiful.

It was really bouncing in the bird bath.  In fact the hail took a long time to melt today as it didn't get very warm.  Tonight there are still some piles of it under the trees.

What a difference a few days make.  We had such a beautiful sunny Sabbath day with no wind.  It couldn't have been nicer in many ways.  The four elders at church all spoke and did a great job at it even though three of them were new to speaking like that.  After church we had planned a birthday party for Tim.  All our children were there for it plus Tim's brother came.  I had nine people

sitting  around my table. 

Tim grilled some steaks.  I made those frozen hash brown potatoes with all the fatty stuff in them that he likes so well.  All was good and we were so stuffed we didn't have any of the birthday cake I had made. 

We enjoyed sitting outside the whole afternoon.  Toward evening all the men went fishing.  We ladies stayed here just visiting and resting, a very lovely day.