Its been awhile....

Hi everyone, we know its been awhile since we've posted anything, but we are plugging along here.

Jeff has a big test coming tomorrow and Friday - yes, two days long - and we have been studying like fiends for the last two weeks. This test will cover three chapters of Arabic. Jeff is in a pilot program, and before they tested the classes at the end of each chapter. They are now trying a new teaching style, so they are testing three at once. It is truly a lot to learn, and our old brains are hurting.

We have been working on landscaping our backyard. Its approximately 15' x 30', and you can see in the picture that half is "grass." We use the term grass lightly here because in reality it was weeds and other green stuff that happened to grow. It took us two weekends to clear most of it out, filling our large yard recycle bin twice. There is still more to clear, but it is mainly soil now.

The theme of our yard is tranquility. We making one side of the yard an herb garden, shaped as a labyrinth and the other side will have a small pond with a waterfall and plants. Many gothic cathedrals had labyrinths built into the floor tile design.

The idea behind a labyrinth is that when you start, you can see your goal in the center surrounded by twists and turns. As you walk the design and meditate and pray on your goal, you will come closer and then away from the goal, as things tend to happen in life, and then you finally reach the center. In such a tiny yard (haha) we do not have the space of a cathedral, but have tried to capture the essence. I think we'll put something in Arabic in the center. Hopefully, the plants will grow around our goal as does our knowledge.

This weekend, we are going to put the little pond and waterfall in, if the weather holds for us. Most of the herbs have been planted. Then we will select some more flowers. We are hoping the make our little yard a great place to study and to have bbq's as the weather gets warmer.