• you can see the grass again. The snow melted away, finally!
• the Mansion collected sap from maple trees. The sugar shack was up and running and making maple syrup. Delicious!
• kids start taking their bikes out of the shed under the house. And riding around with no helmets. Editor’s note: Take that back. Dad wants us to put our helmets on when we ride our bikes.
• you can have a bbq outside with your neighbors between 5 and 6 p.m. in 50 or so degree weather. You also don’t freeze, although our hands were cold after the bbq was over.
• the ice on the pond has melted, and the pond water is back to its normal greenish color.
• you can smell the manure pile down by our house if the wind is blowing right. We didn’t miss that during the winter.
• people start coming down to the fields again. Ready to plant little seedlings soon. Seeds are started in the greenhouse.
• we kids can go outside with just a sweatshirt on and a long-sleeve underneath and not be too cold. Mom doesn’t always think that that’s the best idea though. Sweatshirts instead of heavy winter coats.
• the leaves are supposed to grow back onto the trees although they haven’t yet. Still bare brown trees. Flowers haven’t grown yet or I haven’t seen any at least.
• Mom talks about pulling the weeds in our little yard strip with bushes, dandelions are growing. Mom also starts talking about helping out in the fields when they get the plants started. Mostly pulling weeds. Not very exciting. Sorry, I’m not huge into yardwork. =/
• you have an Easter egg hunt outside in the woods in our backyard. That was fun, our neighbor who hid the eggs put strawberries in some of the big ones. Fun idea for anyone who doesn’t want eggstra candy from eggs lying around their house. Strawberries are disposable and delicious. Fruit is also God’s candy! Someone said that we could eat as much of God’s candy as we wanted. YES!
• mud season is over and some people in our family are dreading black fly season which is mostly the month of May. Then summer comes and the mosquitoes and the humidity, so I’ve heard at least. =[ Fall is the best time around here, April isn't too bad but you're still waiting for warmer weather. We're supposed to get an April snow! Aah! But it hasn't happened yet so we're hoping that it won't come altogether.
• your siblings go out to the pond on campus with some friends and get some bread from the barn. They want to feed the catfish that live in the pond. The fish aren't more than 3-5 inches long. Someone said that the catfish only grow as big as the pond, so if the pond is so big then the catfish won't grow any bigger. I found that very interesting.
• your brother, Di, went and chased frogs around the pond.
• your two little brothers each bring home an orange that has been made into a bunny. A cotton ball tail, felt ears and feet all glued to the orange along with green whiskers and eyes for a face. G named his "bunny", Patrick. You named your orange "bunnies"??? I guess that I can't be too surprised. My sibs have named their golf balls and yeah. It's crazy.

These are the orange "bunnies". Cute, aren't they? In a sort of odd way. Patrick is the "bunny" on the left.

Picture of the bunnies sideways. See the little tails?

Those are all the signs of spring that I can think of right now. Enjoy spring wherever you are! -DL

XE here again. I was thinking about Tae Kwon Do. By the way, 5 people in our family tested for our red stripe on our white belts and passed. The youngest didn’t participate. All 5 of us broke a board with a side kick, 2 people broke two boards. Anyway, Tae Kwon Do, I was thinking about how when we did Tae Kwon Do, when our teacher asked us to do stuff, we just did it. We didn’t question it or whatever. Even when the exercises he does are sometimes killing. I don’t like ab work or holding up my arms after 10 drop push ups and circling them. Doing push-ups the long way across the gym is tiring too. Your muscles are just dying or it feels like it at least. Yet, we don’t give up, we do what he says when he says it, we don’t complain. Some people think that some things are harder than others. Like my sister doesn’t think that the drop push ups and hold your arms and circling them is that bad. So people have different opinions.

A couple of weeks ago, our instructor was on a trip so he said that our family could work out (do Tae Kwon Do) in the gym anyway if we wanted. So Mom and us 4 kids went up to the gym to work out. Mom was the temporary instructor. I must say that it didn’t feel the same having Mom teach us than our normal instructor. No offense, Mom since I know that you’ll read this post. When our instructor teaches us, we just do what he says, no questions asked or comments. We don’t complain because it’s hard or painful although sometimes it is. We try our best. If my mom told me to do some of those exercise things and it wasn’t for Tae Kwon Do, I have to say that I might question her or sigh at the least. I think that we kids need to have that same obedience for our parents sometimes. I’m sure that my parents would agree at certain times. For me, my parents have wanted me to take initiative and do stuff on my own like chores and helping out. It’s hard to obey someone right away especially it’s not pleasant or it’s going to be painful in some way. Well, maybe you do obey but not right away or it’s with a sigh or questioning. Kind of like the game we kids play sometimes, Simon Says. Instead, it’s Mr. Fritz says. Mr. Fritz says to do something and you do it regardless of whether it’s painful or whatever. Although, with Tae Kwon Do, he doesn’t make you sit out if you’re not doing whatever he asked.

So that was something that I realized from Tae Kwon Do. We listen and obey without question of why or “do we have to?” (that has been G’s favorite expression thing recently). We Tso kids need to work on that. I’ll say that just about everybody needs to work on obedience in one time or another. That’s all for now. Oh, 5 of our family (excluding G) have been working on our forms for our next testing. The next testing won’t be for a couple of months but we’re learning our forms and hopefully, if we pass our next test, we’ll be yellow belts! Now, if you told me a year ago that I would be doing Tae Kwon Do, breaking a board, testing and working out. I would’ve said no way Jose, you’ve got to be kidding me. But anything can happen. -DL (Dog Lover)