And damn if it ain’t true.

The boys’ birthday is next week, so to celebrate, we’re taking them to Cedar Point. Again I’m reminded that a nice perk to homeschooling is the ability to go out of town in the middle of the week without the hassle of missing school. We have been to Cedar Point as a family once before when the boys were tall enough to ride the 48″ rides. This year, they’ve passed the 54″ mark and will be able to ride all the (adult) rides. I’ll be packing ginger candy to calm my stomach while “enjoying” the aforementioned rides.

I also bought them two books last week, and presented them a full two weeks before their birthday. I’m a sucker for giving them books. The first book is Pirates. I’m surprised it took me this long to get them any of the new, cool dragon/pirate/wizard books. The second book is The Dangerous Book for Boys. They’re still pretty excited about them both.

We’ve never thrown a party with their friends, and this year is no different. My parents may stop by, and my sister and her husband as well, but it’ll just be an informal sort of thing. We may go all out this year and make cupcakes.

Rob and I have taken the boys to see all three Three openings this year. Spiderman was a midnight show, while both Shrek and Pirates were 10 pm shows. Ah, the benefits of homeschooling. In case you care, Spiderman was as cheesy as we anticipated, Shrek was disappointing, and Pirates was better than expected.

The boys have been enjoying their first season of baseball despite the teams being heavily unbalanced within their league. The unbalance is one of the things I find frustrating about our first baseball experience. There are also a lot of strange rules which aren’t followed consistently. I’m looking forward to them moving up to the next league next year (assuming we’re still living here).

There’s still no word on when or where we are relocating. Nothing more to say about that.

My current clay project is a teapot. I’m actually working on two teapots simultaneously, but one of them is mediocre, and one of them is very good. It’s so good, in fact, that it has pretty much guaranteed my place in the graduate program. Of course, I still need to go through the official application process, but I’ll have a lot more confidence when I apply in the following months.

In Home & Garden news, I’ve completed my bird garden and the birds seem to enjoy it almost as much as I do. Our sub was built in a field, so it feels like a field. There is very little shade around my house. The garden hasn’t provided shade for people, but it makes our yard feel a little less like we’re in a field, and a little more like we’re surrounded by nature.

Because I didn’t have a direction during my first night of class, I made a bowl. One single bowl. In four hours, it was the only productive thing I did. When I confessed to my professor on my second night of class that I still didn’t know what I was going to do, she told me she had seen my bowl, and it was good. And that maybe I should work on being a potter for now.

So the pressure to come up with sculptural ideas is off. Whew. She encouraged me to work on my bowls and dishes, and to experiment with any ideas I get during the course of making bowls. With the pressure gone, I actually found something sculptural I want to try. Go figure. I’ll probably use my class time to work on my pottery, and work on the sculptural thing on my off days. For now.

I started my ceramics class last night. My professor and I spoke about the direction I would take this semester and now I’m freaking out. When I first started out in ceramics, I was drawn to sculptural pieces more than utilitarian pieces. Towards the end, however, I took more interest in things I could use, though I still very much enjoyed the sculptural work.

My prof feels that I should work in sculpture. She said a lot of positive things about my sculptural abilities. She also explained that making functional pottery would be difficult for me because I’m not a thrower. At some point, I joked that I only had the Spring semester to figure out what I want to say as an artist. She responded seriously that I only had one day. She expects me to have a direction by tonight’s class.

I always knew I needed direction. I assumed I would stumble upon it eventually. How does an artist find her voice? I have about eight more hours to figure it out.

Several weeks ago, Rob was given the details of his severance package from his new employer. Most of his co-workers were given packages that started a week after they received the news. Rob’s won’t start until December at the earliest. The employees of the transition are given first consideration if they find a job elsewhere in the company. We’re lucky that Rob has time to find something he likes.

So far, we’ve talked about jobs in six different states and two different countries. I’d choose moving out of the country over moving to two of those states. There’s one state I refuse to live in. If Rob was offered a job there, he would have to make enough money to support two homes, since I wouldn’t be willing to relocate there. I’m only half joking. The second state is less awful to me, but only by a smidge. Unfortunately, Rob found a job there he really wants. He’s going to apply, and then we’ll see what happens.

I don’t honestly know what will happen if he’s offered something there. Right now, I don’t want to think about that possibility. Part of me thinks it will be a temporary thing. We’ll be able to move back home eventually. But the other part of me, the increasingly larger part, thinks our next move will be permanent. The thought of living away from my home until retirement makes me unhappy, but the thought of being stuck in a place I don’t want to be is downright depressing.

A last bit of April rain helped the plum tree bloom.

If the trees think it’s safe to bloom, then it’s time for me to put away the header with the snowy sunrise and replace it with something a little more appropriate for Spring.