One more for today...

I've hit the highlights in the last few posts.  Ben, Alex, Winnie.  As for me, I'm still trudging along with school stuff.  Reading to all the kids is fun, although sometimes it is a little hard to keep track of all 15 of them and what they are doing.  I seem to be endlessly busy but I'm not sure what it is that fills my time!

I do spend a few minutes stargazing every morning. Anytime there is a celestial event and it's somewhat doable I try to watch.  Most recently it was the alignment and visibility of 5 planets.  It just so happens that the prime time to see the planets every day happened to be when I walk out to get the newspaper in the mornings.  Up until this week it was optimal viewing.  The sun rises a little later here and it has been so clear that just about everyday I would get quite a show.  The moon is waxing now and the sun is coming up earlier and the position of the earth has changed so the show isn't quite as it was. I enjoy my quiet moments with the stars though.  I think the alignment and moon will be right again for another few days in August.  Until then I'll watch my constellations, look for shooting stars, and catch all the eclipses I can.  I guess it's no wonder where my son gets his love of space.  I hope his dreams come true.  I hope he can fly to Mars one day.  I hope he can clean up all the space debris that's out there.  I hope he can live amongst the stars.

Finally, in a rare work/school schedule difference I got a day off with Mike while the boys had school.  While the rest of the US observed president's day, Leander ISD was just trucking along.  The weather this winter has been mild to say the least and yesterday was no exception. After a nice leisurely breakfast Mike and I headed up to Leander to check out some dinosaur footprints.  After about a half mile hike up a river bed we found them. They are real, they have been there for 65 million years (or whenever it was that the dinosaurs tromped through the area). It's so surreal though, hard to imagine what this area looked like then. Hard to imagine 1 million of anything, let alone 65 million, never mind trying to put that into terms of time. When we are lucky to live 90 - 100 years, and we can only really connect with history back a couple thousand years, how is 65 million of anything possible? Anyway. dinosaur footprints.  A very cool thing, very close by, and very easy to see.  It was a good day.